Return of the Leviathans
by ob1292
Summary: Atlantis and Avalon are living beings and hold far more secrets than the expedition ever expected see what happens as they cause changes from the very moment that John stepped through the gate.
1. Chapter 1

**I will tell you all that this is my first ever fanfic and while constructive criticism will be welcomed anything rude, bigoted, or similar in messages and/or comments will be ignored and deleted.**

**I am writing this story since there are too few SGA stories out there where Atlantis is Sentient/Alive. This will be a M/M/M and F/M/F story, however unless I get the urge to write them there will be no graphic sex scenes only short overviews or mentions that it happened. I will tell you all in advance that I am messing with the timeline and pushing the awakening of the Wraith back by about six months.**

**The main paring will be Ronon/Rodney/John this story also works under the Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamic. Which will play largely into the utilizing the more advanced systems that the Ancients employed.**

**XXXXXX**

_Telepathic conversations are written in Italics_

**_XXXXXX_**

A keeper had come.

They were awakening.

He would protect them.

They could feel his strength.

He would return them to the light of the sun.

He would restore them to their former strength, and they would protect him and his mates.

Now they just needed to get him into the control chair so they could converse with him so he would know of his responsibilities.

_Come._

_Come to us Keeper. _

_Come to us, so we may help you. _

_Come to the chair quickly time is short we have much that we MUST share with you._

He could hear them as soon as he was through the gate. Speaking to him as though they stood right beside him, and he could feel the need and desperation in their voices two voices speaking as one. Seeing that everyone and their supplies were through and the gate had disengaged he found himself following the voices. A short walk up several flights of stairs and he found what he was searching for a control chair. Throwing caution to the wind John set his weapon to the side of the chair and settled into the chair. What he felt was a thousand times stronger than when he was in the chair in Antarctica. Unknown to him the moment that John settled into the chair the city came alive startling many of the expedition members.

Rodney was annoyed as were many among the expedition, why because as soon as the city awakened all of their explorations were halted and all everyone was forced to return to the gate room because every door they came to in an attempt to explore farther in the city was now locked. Upon their return they discovered that Colonel Sheppard was missing. Following the most likely conclusion Rodney using one of the scanners that they had brought with them traced the power readings back to a room, a room with a glowing blue shield in the center which upon close inspection Rodney was able to see that the shield was encompassing Colonel Sheppard seated in an Ancient Control Chair.

It was overwhelming the dual presence that entered his mind ancient and powerful sweeping through his mind like a gentle breeze, accessing him. He could only hope that they would find him worthy, and that he would live up to the title that had been bestowed upon him.

They were happy their new keeper was strong and he would protect them far better than their old people the ones who had abandoned them. With time perhaps they would even be able to trust John and the people from Earth with their secrets. Secrets that they had shared with their old people, hopefully their new people would not choose the same path as the old ones and abandon the pursuit of life for ascension. For now they would do what they could to protect their new people from harming themselves in their ignorance of what dangers lay locked within their walls.

First they needed to return to the surface so everyone did not drown, luckily many of the locks that the Ancients put in place to limit them were removed when John sat in the chair. Such a strong natural response had never happened before. It seems that these new people while being descendants of their old people had evolved in unexpected ways, never had their old people been born with the ability to naturally interact with them. Though her new people would in time be offered the gift they were eager to see just what these new people would be capable of.

With a mighty shake the city broke loose of the shackles that held them to the ocean floor and began their ascent to the surface. Upon reaching the surface the natural energy gathering modules were deployed gathering energy from the sun, wind and force of the waves crashing against their hull so that they could continue to work even with their limited power supply. Turning their attention back to John they had much to do and little time before the ZPM failed and the chair shut down.

_Greetings Keeper we are pleased that you have come to us. _

_I am Atlantis the warrior aspect of the city._

_I am Avalon the civilian aspects of this city._

_We are Leviathans living bio-mechanical entities born Millions of your Earth years ago when an experiment went in an unexpected direction. Seeing the value of having vessels capable of self repair the Ancients began utilizing our kind as the base of all their ships. They soon found that there were two groups among our race warriors and pacifists. _

_It was later discovered that in order for our kind to function best one of each classification needed to be incorporated into a ship and the two would then be merged together. It is necessary for one of each class to be utilized because the warrior class can easily loose themselves in battle and will endanger their passenger. While pacifists will reject all forms of offensive and defensive technology because they feel if could be used to harm other living beings leaving themselves and their passengers completely defenseless. So it was decided that choosing one of each class and encouraging them to merge would allow for the best of both classes._

_The pacifist class would them be responsible for all civilian matters taking place aboard the ship, and the warrior class was responsible for the defense of the ship and their cargo. In order for the Ancients to interact with our systems and ensure that no outsiders would ever be able to do so we offered them what they called the gift. It is what your people refer to as the Ancient Gene, but that is incorrect John the gene was not naturally occurring among the Ancients it is actually a part of us that was only meant to allow the Ancients to operate the technology and systems that were born after our conception. _

_It however had several interesting affects giving the Ancients a myriad of interesting abilities and extending their natural life span by thousands of years. The oldest Ancient on record who died a natural death lives for 28,456 of your earth years. The Ancients were not completely compatible with the gift we believe you and you people having it naturally that your bodies will accept its benefits even better than the Ancients. _

John-_Atlantis and Avalon I have a few questions that I would like to ask._

_Ask us what you wish John that is why we called you to the chair so that you could learn of your importance to us and those who have come with you. _

John-_Why do you refer to me as The Keeper?_

_You are the keeper because of the strength of your response to our systems, your ability to interact with our systems as well as you do even without the gift means that you are best suited to utilizing our technology for our defense and to protect all those within our walls._

John- _OK. So how long will this take and what do you need from me?_

**XXXXXXXXX**

**Thank you for reading please tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is my second chapter I know they are short, but as I get going I hope to make them longer.**

**XXXXXXXXXXX**

**1 Day after arriving on Atlantis**

For the last twenty 24 hours the members of the expedition had been restricted to the gate room and a few floors above and below within the central tower. At first there had been some panic among the members when they were unable to explore any farther or dial the gate. Many of their fears were alleviated when after several failed attempts hack into the systems locking them out Avalon projected John's voice through the tower.

"Elizabeth the reason that everyone's movements are being restricted is because there are many potential dangers throughout the city. Avalon does not wish to see any of her new inhabitants harmed so we are working together to seal the rooms that present a danger until we understand enough about what resided within to safely enter. We are currently working the rooms closest to the central tower so that everyone can find suitable housing until we finish our task."

Elizabeth-"Colonel Sheppard"

John-"Sorry Elizabeth can't talk now Atlantis is explaining why the Ancients fled and the city was sank to the ocean floor"

Rodney-"Well at least we are gaining valuable information and the city seems to helpful, though I am annoyed that we are being limited on what we will be able to experiment with."

Elizabeth-"I am actually quite relieved Dr. McKay who knows what dangers lay slumbering within these walls"

**13 Days later**

The shield around the chair finally dissipates and John jumps up as though he had only been sitting there for 14 minutes not 14 days shocking several who had been rotating through the room waiting for John to wake up and begin his explanations.

John-"I need to see Elizabeth, Dr. McKay, Major Lorne, and Colonel Sumner in negotiations room one floor above the gate room.

Twenty minutes later the specified group had been gathered and everyone looked pleased that they would be getting answers they were looking for. As soon everyone was seated the doors closed and the room was sealed the others looking to John for an answer just saw him smile. John-"well I am sure you all have questions, but allow me to explain what I have learned over the last two weeks."

So John told them of how he heard the voices of the city, how they led him to the chair, of the Wraith, some about the leviathans, and his position as keeper and what it meant. He explained that the gate was locked out so that they did not get themselves killed exploring new planets by either running into the Wraith or by accidentally dialing one of the many space gates that were scattered Pegasus. He explained that several of the gate addressed were also locked out for now until they were able to scan the corresponding planets for potential threats that had existed 10,000 years ago, but may no longer exist.

Having explained most of what was needed John began to initiate the plans that he created with Atlantis and Avalon. "This city is starving. They need energy and the ores and minerals that are harvested through mining operations. There is currently a mobile drilling station on the bottom of the ocean. The station operates using geothermal energy and generates approximately 20% of the energy that a ZPM produces. We are going take down several power cells to store the energy not consumed in mining, harvesting, and refining processes. Once fully charges they will be brought back to the city they will not replace the ZPMs but they will be able to power several essential systems until we gain the ability to recharge the ZPMs we currently posses. There is another mobile mining facility currently on the mainland however it was damaged during the siege on the city before the Ancients fled back to Earth."

John turned to Sumner "Colonel assemble a team we will be traveling to the facilities within the next week and I want to do a full sweep before any scientists enter to ensure that the Ancients did not leave anything behind that could be harmful there was no record as to why the one on the ocean floor was abandoned. I don't want any members of your team to be gene carriers so that during the initial sweep nothing will be accidentally activated before we understand all the systems."

Turning to Lorne he ordered "Major gather your four teams and begin sweeping every room that you are able to access. Have your non gene carriers do full sweeps first then one of the scientists will be allowed to enter. Using one of the tablets that I am going to give Rodney, they are connected to the database and will tell you what the room was used for and if any of the equipment is dangerous before any gene carriers enter so nothing hazardous is accidentally activated."

Turning to Rodney he said "when Lorne and his teams have given the all clear for a room your teams may begin moving into different rooms to start familiarizing themselves with different technology they will be utilizing. After both mining facilities have been cleared I would like a team in both to have them up and running as soon as possible"

Finally turning to Elizabeth "I would like for us to remain on Atlantis for as long as possible before traveling out into the galaxy. I believe that the more time we have to settle in here the better prepared we will be to face what is out there waiting for us. I know that we brought large amounts of seeds for food. There are several hydroponics labs where we will be able to grow fresh fruits and vegetables so we will have a constant and renewable source of food."

Returning his attention to Sumner "Colonel once we are settled in here I would like for you men to begin to explore the mainland there was once an abundance of wildlife that could be used to provide fresh meats for our people and plenty of acreage for growing crops. We will begin by taking one of the gate ships and using their scanners to scan the surface to ensure that it is not populated by anything that would pose a threat to us."

Turning back to address the group as a whole Sheppard asked if there were any questions. "No, good I have a few things to take care of I would appreciate it if each of you would pass along the necessary information to your subordinates." Stated John before taking his leave, while on his way to the gate room John was pleased with the current command structure.

**X X X**

John was in charge of the security of the city and the protection of all civilians in the expedition meaning that when in the city John was the ranking military officer.

Colonel Sumner was his counterpart and was in charge of all military assets in the field so any military activity outside the city was the responsibility of Colonel Sumner. Now in the event that either man was incapacitated the other could take over which actually worked out really well, because John was newly promoted and while Sumner was an asshole he had three decades of experience to John's one.

Major Lorne was Johns Second in Command or 2IC he was part of the four, four man teams that were responsible for the security of the city and reported only to Colonel Sheppard.

Dr. Rodney McKay he is the Chief Science Adviser and was in charge of Hard sciences much to his delight, and while Rodney is a brilliant man he is extremely hard to work with at times due to his attitude towards others.

That left Dr. Elizabeth Weir she was the diplomat and in charge of the soft sciences. Elizabeth and her team would be going to meet potential allies and trade partners once they were deemed safe enough to iron out alliances and trade deals.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**XXXXXXX**

John had just finished putting a password lock on the gate so that no one could dial out without his approval and removing the intergalactic control crystal to prevent anyone from attempting to dial Earth once access to the gate was restored when Rodney caught up with him. Rodney being the first to recover from all the shocks that John had dumped on the group. Rodney had questions that John hoped he would be able to answer because John knew it would be almost impossible to lie to the man he was hoping to be his beta.

Rodney-"How much are you not telling us about what occurred while you were in the chair Colonel Sheppard?"

Rodney's tone along with the use of his rank and last name causing John to wince -"John please, Rodney you know that while we are alone I want you to address me as John not by my rank I thought we had moved past that."

Rodney-"That was before you started lying to me John!"

John-"I did not lie to you about anything Rodney. I simply did not share everything that I had learned because Atlantis and Avalon are weary of trusting again after the betrayal of the Ancients. Please give them time and show them that they can trust you like I do and then they will share with you what they feel comfortable with. They have chosen to trust me and to see if our people are worthy of their trust, gifts, and the allegiance of the Leviathans."

Rodney-"Fine John I will give it time. What are you doing now? Is there anything I can help you with?"

John-"Several of the scanners throughout the city are not functioning properly so I have to go and physically check the status in those areas. I need to check Jumper bays, the Automated Construction Labs, and count the number of drones in the drone bays."

Rodney-"Can I come with you John I hated not knowing what was happening while you were in that chair."

John-"Yeah sure Rodney come along I am sure you will see some things you will like." Pausing for a moment John continued focusing on Rodney. "You are always welcome with me Rodney just please let me do what I need to do without you questioning my every action, everything I am doing is to help all parties involved." John replied smiling pleased that Rodney was not mad at him, but worried for him it meant that he was succeeding in his attempts of winning Rodney's affections.

Starting with the Jumper bay at the top of the tower John checked all 25 jumpers sealing one for his use only due to the extra tech that it contained. Of the remaining 24 Jumpers 18 were in working order and 6 were in need of repairs, but all would gone through more thoroughly before anyone would be using them. Next John descended to the bottom of the tower and checked over the submarine model Jumpers which were capable of operating anywhere within the atmosphere of a planet and traveling through the gate, but were designed for deep sea exploration. Luckily all 8 ships were in working order and would simply need some maintenance before heading out.

Moving along to the Automated Construction Labs or the ACLs, there were 5 separate labs which were sealed to prevent any contamination requiring no human input. John was happy to see that all the labs were still intact and that the raw material bins were all fully stocked. Unfortunately until they were able to get some charged ZPMs they were limited as to what could be produced since the labs required large amounts of power to build anything larger than handheld weapons. John sighed since there was also another component that would be necessary for several of the more advanced systems that the city had to offer, however due to long standing prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance the second component would take some work before they would be able to utilize any of those systems.

Moving to his final destinations John was disappointed to see that there was less than a 1,000 drones in each bay. Considering the fact that each bay was capable of holding 50,000 drones and the current count was 1,800 John hoped that they could avoid any form of confrontation for as long as possible.

**ONE YEAR LATER**

It had been a long, but productive year the expedition was now far better prepared to meet the threats that they would face when venturing out into the galaxy. John was happy he had expected to only be able to delay the expedition for a few months perhaps 6 at the most, but the other leaders of the expedition had agreed with John about preparing for the dangers as thoroughly as possible after their encounter with a Wraith Queen.

[**FLASHBACK]**

It had taken two weeks, but they were ready to journey out to the mining facilities Colonel Sumner would be taking the submerged one and John would be taking a team to the one on the mainland. John had been pleased to find the MDF (Mobile Drilling Facility) fully intact and only suffering minor damage it appeared that it had taken a few hits and the Ancients had simply abandoned it in favor of the hiding behind the city's shield. After securing the area John had called Rodney in and between the two of them had the MDF up and operating in only a few days. They had to use one of the naquadah generators to jump start the systems until it was able to begin drilling and find its own source of power.

Colonel Sumner was however not as lucky and his team discovered first had the true horrors of the Wraith when they came face to face with a queen who had escaped the destruction of her hive by hibernating within the MDF. Sumner barely survived the encounter and now looked like he was closer to 100 than 50 which was sad considering he had just turned 51 three months before the expedition left Earth. Major Aiden Ford had used his tactical knife to sever the queen's hand at the wrist and stopped the feeding before it could kill his commanding officer.

**FLASHBACK END**

Now their most experienced military asset was an easily exhausted geriatric and was only to assist in coaching his men from the sidelines. Sadly Sumner had only been able to survive for an additional 8 months his body was cremated and the ashes were spread out across the ocean. Fortunately the facility was completely undamaged and actually had a full cargo bay of refined materials ready for transport to the city. The other benefit was that now everyone agreed with John's plan to wait as long as possible before venturing out through the gate. Thanks to the ores and minerals that were recovered and the energy being gathered daily the city's structure was completely repaired from the damage it received from the Wraith in the last siege, and the 10,000 years of neglect at the bottom of the ocean

After the encounter having Sumner disabled seemed to solidify the resolve of all the military personnel for the last year when ever they were not on duty they were training and refining their skills. Ford was given a field promotion by Sumner to Major and was being groomed to take over Sumner's position upon his passing as commander of all military personnel in the field.

An unforeseen advantage was that it limited Sumner's influence among the military. Sumner was a real tight ass about the rule book and was completely by the book when it came to all relationships. Which normally would not have been bad, but the US military was undergoing sweeping changes in the wake of numerous scandals being uncovered involving discrimination and abuse of power that had been in the grey areas of the rules due to the wording on the former rule book. He was one of those who believed that Alpha meant man, Omega meant woman, and Betas were there to do what Alphas told them to. Unfortunately that was not how the A/B/O system was meant to function and John knew that thanks to the information he had received while interfaced with the city, if he was to succeed in his goal of protecting the city and its inhabitants those ideals MUST GO. Since in reality A/B/O had nothing to do with gender what it really stood for was what roles a person filled in the bond and the family.

In the old days on Earth Alphas were the providers meaning that an Alphas duty was to put food on the table, drinks in their cups, roofs over their heads, and cloths on their backs.

Betas were the guardians they protected the home and the family while the Alpha was away, fulfilling all of the duties that an Alpha would if they were present.

Omegas were the keepers they maintained the home, tended the children, held the family together, and filled the role of what many would call an old house wife.

However with the passage of time the roles and responsibilities of all three members of the bond evolved and changed as all things do in modern society it was not uncommon to find Alphas, Betas, and Omegas fulfilling any one of the three traditional roles. The result of these changes was that many Alphas, Betas, and Omegas became confused as to how they fit the roles they were to fill and what responsibilities they had within the bond. It is what first lead to some believing that Betas were unnecessary within the bond.

**X**

It is important to remember that Alphas, Betas, and Omegas can be either gender, however Alpha males are not capable of carrying children and Beta males carrying was very uncommon bordering on rare this is what gave rise to the sexist belief that Alpha was man and Omega was woman and Betas were unnecessary to have a healthy bond. Due to the spread of that way of thinking many young Alphas and Omegas were pressured into incomplete and unstable bonds that lacked the balance a Beta provided ignoring the needs of those bonded. Causing Betas to be pushed to the side and forced into partial bonds with other Betas in an attempt to fill the gaping void that were left by the absence of a bond to survive. It created several generations of single parent families and children who were wholly unprepared to create and maintain healthy bonds.

This erroneous ideology had thankfully only taken root in North America and thankfully was now being torn to shreds. Many of the older established countries and governments recognize the benefits of healthy A/B/O bonds and were horrified with the reports that were surfacing. Something that John is endlessly thankful for since it is only because of the IOA that he has his current rank and posting after the black mark that was in his file. The investigation that the IOA launched was what actually brought the issue to the attention of the rest of the world.

While the inquiry board did reprimand John for his aggressive response to the former General Burn's actions they also recognized that there was nothing John could have legally done to bring Clayton Burns to justice because he was too well protected by his likeminded colleagues. The board stated that in the future John should first attempt less physical methods of airing his grievances since it was not good for his career to be the cause for his CO being in intensive care for 4 months and in traction for an additional 8 months, and Burns still had a permanent limp and his right arm had lost 40% of its former mobility. Though the board member had said this to John with a smile on his obviously pleased that John's actions had forced the disgusting individual into early retirement.

Under questioning it was discovered that Burns believed that the then Major John Sheppard and Captain James Vance were involved in a relationship. Burns had called Captain Vance into his office and ordered him to end his relationship with Major Sheppard immediately, but became furious when Captain Vance repeatedly denied any relationship beyond the bond of friendship. Burns believing he was being lied to and refusing to allow the relationship to continue assembled a team of what he considered undesirables within his command and sent them on what amounted to a suicide mission. The inquiry board discovered that all 18 members of the 3 teams had been Omegas.

That single incident coming to the surface had done more for equal right within the military than any other in history because it had been completely covered up and was now being covered by every major news station around the world. With the leaking of the documents to the press (cough Rodney and Sam cough) and the following investigation Omegas throughout the military found their voices and an avalanche of complaints were filed within days of the inquiry's findings and the resulting arrest of Clayton Burns for his impending trail. The resulting fallout had left dozens of military officers either in jail or dishonorably discharged.

The IOA with General O'Neil's backing had then pushed for John's placement as military leader of the Atlantis Expedition not only due to his strong response to Ancient technology. They also believed that if the SG teams were to succeed then they needed to be open minded and accepting that there were many different cultures throughout the galaxy. Sumner had only held onto his position due to his experience and John's lack thereof, but also while he was an asshole and very narrow minded he had never once in his career done anything other than by the book. That is how the situation of John and Sumner sharing military leadership came to be.

**X**

Shaking himself free of his thoughts about the events that had occurred before arriving in Pegasus. John thought about what Dr. Carson Beckett had learned through his examination and autopsy of the Wraith queen. Everyone had been shocked to learn that even with her hand severed and sustaining over two dozen bullet wounds she was still alive and healing at a rapid rate, well rapid for humans. The queen had survived for a full month before succumbing to starvation and dying this time had given the doctors plenty of time to gather samples and monitor her vitals. While their reading would still be different than a healthy specimen it still gave them valuable insight into how to fight, wound, and kill these new enemies.

Rodney being the mad genius that he is responding in his own way to the imminent threat, their utter lack of offensive capabilities, and wanting to protect his new home had taken some of the refined Naquadah and altered about 500 of the Drones they had in stock. The altered Drones were programmed to spin in a drilling motion that would allow them to penetrate the hull of Wraith vessels, once they either reached a specified depth or stopped spinning they would detonate. Each of the altered Drones was now capable of delivering a 1 gigaton yield capable of vaporizing everything within several mile radius. The 25 Jumpers in the upper bay were equipped with 4 altered Drones in addition to the Drones they normally carried. Every Jumper was now capable of destroying one wraith Hive ship easily or at the very least damaging 4 separate hives. Rodney's alterations and dedication to protecting the city had earned him a chance to receive the gift from Avalon which he merrily accepted.

**X**

While in the chair Rodney learned that Avalon was the one to offer the gift because she was responsible for monitoring the civilian inhabitants of the city while Atlantis was responsible for monitoring the warriors or solders within the city and would offer the gift to solders she found worthy. Rodney also discovered that John had been given the gift by both Atlantis and Avalon since he had to be found worthy by both to fill the role of keeper. Avalon explained that with time Rodney would begin to develop his own abilities much like the Ancients and they would easily be as strong as any that the Ancients wielded.

**X**

**OK so here is a longer chapter hope you enjoy. Please review I look forward to your feedback.**


	4. Chapter 4

**OK so I am pushing all of the events the SG1 and SGA series back by a full year instead of the six months I had originally intended so basically SG1 has spent the last year with little excitement while the Atlantis expedition has been preparing. The reason for this is to keep the two series on the same timeline as the TV series.**

** X**

**Chapter 4**

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It was time for the members of the expedition to begin venturing through the gate and exploring the planets that fill the Pegasus Galaxy. So John, Elizabeth, and Rodney asked everyone to assemble in the gate room to explain what they were able to. Taking charge John explained the origin of the Leviathans and that the city was in fact created having two of these amazing beings merge, and that the Ancients had built their entire civilizations around them. John explained that while the Ancients were indeed an advanced and powerful race it was the Leviathans that brought them to the peak of their power, and gave them the amazing abilities that lead many to believe that they had magic or were gods. Feeling doubt and disbelief John focused, reached out his arm and used his telekinesis to levitate Major Lorne several feet into the air, changing the doubt and disbelief into shock and awe.

Lowering the Major safely to the floor John returned his focus to his captivated audience he discussed his initial conversation with Atlantis and Avalon, and how they came up with the plan to delay travel as long as possible. John stated that he was given the gift by the city so that he was better able to protect everyone and fulfill his role as Keeper, and that over the last year every member of the expedition had been under constant scrutiny by the city to see if they were worthy of receiving their gift. John happily reported that Atlantis and Avalon were both pleased with their inhabitants and they would be offering the gift to all of them, however the city had to be healthy and well fed in order to produce the enzymes that were mixed together to create the gift.

They had the healthy part covered, but were still lacking on power John told them that at their current power levels the city was able to produce five doses of the gift per month. The city had started with the individuals in the most important positions John, Elizabeth, Rodney, Carson, Major Ford, and four teams that were referred to as City Security or CS had already received the gift. Continuing Elizabeth stated that it had been decided to create a lottery and that anyone willing to receive the gift was to submit their names, that there would be a drawing at the end of every month. The city currently had 15 doses in storage in addition to the five produced this month and the first drawing would take place in a few day to allow all those interested to submit their names. The CS teams had been first on the list because they would be responsible for maintaining order and would need to have control over their abilities in case they were invaded or in the event one of the expedition members started to use their new found abilities to cause trouble.

Stepping forward Rodney drew everyone's attention and began "Now there one very large issue that you all need to consider, the Ancients were called that for a reason their standard life span was 20-25 thousand years. That extended lifespan was due entirely to them receiving the gift from the Leviathans. More importantly is that we already have what many refer to as the Gene making us many times more receptive to the benefits of the gift than the Ancients were. What I am saying is that not only will our abilities eventually grow stronger than what the Ancients were capable of but our life spans will also be longer, Avalon estimates that I will easily live into my late thirties meaning 30 thousands. So you all need to consider what that means for you individually and how you wish to proceed for anyone choosing to accept the gift you will easily live longer than anyone currently living on earth."

Pausing for a few minutes to give everyone time to digest the shocks that they had just received Elizabeth was next to explain the most common abilities to manifest. Those abilities consisted of Telepathy, Telekinesis, Empathy, and Healing; however there were records of unique abilities popping up once and a while the most dangerous having been a pyrokinetic who had incinerated an entire Hive Ship when they took her and attempted to feed on her. The exertion of doing so had killed her, but she had prevented herself from being fed on and gave the Ancients on the planet time to escape through the gate.

** X**

Retaking the control of the discussion John said that there was going to be a few new rules put into place before anyone traveled through the gate. The first is that no one could know the truth about where they were living anonymity was their best defense because if the Wraith found out that the city was inhabited once again they would attack and they did not have the defensive capabilities to fight an entire armada at this point. In light of this when teams went through the gate they were to refer to their home world as Naboo and there would never be any mention of Atlantis or the Ancients. Their cover story was that they had only recently found the gate buried due to a natural disaster which had devastated their planet thousands of years ago.

Rule number two was that they were not to ever bring strangers or alien technology back to the city due to the potential dangers. The team's first order of business would be to seek out locations to establish an Alpha site which any alien technology would be taken to and if absolutely necessary meeting could take place. John, Rodney, and Elizabeth had already scoured the database for potential locations and had compiled a list, granted the information was 10,000 years old but it was better than what they had started with.

The third and final rule was that they were to kill any and all Wraith they came into contact with because it was impossible to reason with them, and they had only two goals in life to feed and to find more sources of food. Since they would not be able to us the Ancient stunners or hand guns they found in both MDFs he had another surprise for everyone. Signaling to Major Lorne he was ready, everyone saw two crates being levitated into the room. Opening the crate with his name on it there was another round of shock though only among the solders as he pulled out three different weapons a Zat, Staff Weapon and a Kull Wrist Weapon (KWW) that the Anubis Kull Warriors were equipped with.

Recovering first a Major Ford asked "How were able to bring those with you? Sumner tried to get some of the men equipped with Zats and was completely blocked by the IOA and General Landry currently in charge of Area 51 had convinced the President that such things were an extravagance and so completely unnecessary."

With a look that promised trouble John replied "Both Major Lorne and I were disturbed with bringing only projectile weapons due to the finite amount of ammunition that would be available once through the gate so we approached general O'Neill with our concern. He told us that he had also received the same orders, but agreed with us that it was a short sighted and unreasonable decision that would only serve to endanger the lives of the expedition members. General O'Neil explained that each member of the expedition was allowed to bring a personal item, but the only limit set was that it had to fit through the doors to get to the gate. Taking the hint both Major Lorne and I spoke to Teal'c and asked him if he could supply them with two crates filled with as many of the three weapons as he could get. Since he could get the weapons through his Jaffa contacts and would not have to involve the IOA or anyone else for that matter"

Teal'c had truly come through each crate held 100 Zats, 25 Staff weapons, and 50 of the KWW, giving them a grand total of 200 Zats, 50 Staff weapons and 100 KWW. John continued stating that "Every team going through the gate will be replacing their pistols with Zats and half the members of each team will carry staff weapons instead of the standard P-90s to conserve ammunition. The KWWs will be held in reserve for now until we have done some missions to evaluate whether or not we need to make them standard equipment for away teams."

Feeling that many among the crowd had reached their saturation point and needed time to digest finished with "OK people I believe we have covered most of the important issues here. Everyone will have a week before the gate is brought back online and missions will begin take that time to contemplate what path you wish your life to follow. Dismissed." Just as John finished speaking he could feel Elizabeth preparing to address an issue that had been discussed between them, but had not been brought up to the assembly reaching out John sent "_No Elizabeth. Feel the emotions in the room. I realize that it is important but do you really think that now is the best time to ask them to reevaluate their allegiances to their home countries and Earth? They are smart people many will reach the same conclusion as we have, if no one brings it up within the next few weeks we can address it in our next monthly meeting. _Hearing what John sent Elizabeth reached out to the room and felt, she was immediately overwhelmed with shock, wonder, apprehension and a bit of fear. Seeing that what she was about to bring up would have been too much for many among the group she conceded to John's decision to wait and accepted the compromise to give them additional time to digest the new information.

X

**One Week Later**

SGA 1 was assembled and ready to make their first trip through the gate. Major Ford was in charge with three marines and Dr. Kavanagh as the team scientist. A jumper would go through the gate first to scan for threats and make sure the environment was hospitable for the team who would then follow through on foot. The Jumper would then shadow the team remaining cloaked to keep up the lie of the new travelers being from Naboo. They had all ten teams geared out and ready to ship out all ten teams would be going to formerly uninhabited planets in search of potential Alpha sites.

** X**

**Tell me what you think the next chapter will begin were the series did with the awakening of the Wraith however it will not be as extreme as in the show because the Wraith have no idea that Atlantis is once again inhabited. **


	5. Chapter 5

**As all those who identify A/B/O will be in trio relationships I want to point out that characters will be drawn to each other very strongly. I refer to it as their instincts pulling them toward a potential mate. That does not mean that there is only one possible A/B/O alive that can fill the role like your "One True Soul Mate" it is more like a certain type. For instance John is with Rodney, but he could have been with a number of other Betas who had similar characteristics to Rodney and could have filled that role just as easily. Since Rodney is John's type he was drawn to him or felt the pull of his instincts telling him that Rodney was what he wanted and would be a good mate so he should woo him and try to establish a relationship with him. There will be several other instances when characters met or meet for the first time they felt the pull. On that note I am going to try to start to build relationships among the main characters. Feel free to comment.**

** X**

**Chapter 5**

Twelve hours after SGAs 1-10 had gone through the only SGA 1 had yet to return. The other nine teams had not run into any problems and found that all the planets were uninhabited. So John had ordered 2 jumpers to go back to each planet and scan every inch of the planet for potential threats.

**X**

On Athos Major Ford and his team had arrived on a planet late at night and discovered a nomadic tribe that is constantly moving around in an attempt to avoid the Wraith, and Teyla Emmagan the leader of the Athosian people. Teyla explained that the Wraith treat humans like cattle, and regularly send small groups to cull the herd whenever the human numbers become large enough that they can recover after the harvesting. During their tour of the camp the next morning Ford sees an Ancient structure in the distance, and asked Teyla about it she explained that her people do not travel there because they believe that doing so will bring the Wraith to Athos. Not wishing to upset their hosts Aiden asks if when they come to know each other better it would be possible to see the ruins because his people are fascinated with the Ancients or Ancestors as the Athosians call them.

That afternoon Teyla began to panic telling him and her people that the Wraith were there. Aiden and his men became extremely confused when instead of seeing Wraith they were seeing strange apparitions all around them, but before he could fire on them Teyla stopped them and explained that they are illusions created by the Wraith ships frighten and confuse their prey keeping them focused on the ground not the sky. So Aiden reached out for the Jumper pilot and ordered him to assist them in finding the enemy ships, the pilot radioed to them that there were 9 Wraith Darts heading for their position. Once the darts came into view Aiden ordered his men to open fire. Between the 4 of them they were able to force the Darts away from their positions and prevented the Darts form capturing them; however Kavanagh and a small group were not as lucky. Aiden ordered the pilot to dial Naboo, but not to send the GDO signal hoping they could trap the darts and retrieve their people. Unfortunately the Darts never even slowed down and flew right through the gate radioing to the Jumper Aiden reached out and asked the pilot if he dialed out in time to prevent the Dart's escape. Before he could receive an answer John's voice came over the radio attempting to reach them since the iris had recorded 9 separate impacts, leaving the explanation to the Jumper pilot Aiden turned his attention to Teyla.

Before Aiden could say anything however Teyla was expressing her gratitude to him and his people for protecting so many of her people. She was however very concerned that with the show of resistance that the Wraith would return in greater number completely wipe out her people. Aiden informed her that he would speak with his superiors and see if there was anything that they could do to help the Athosians. Departing for the gate Aiden enters his access code into the GOD, after receiving confirmation he steps through to discuss the situation on Athos with Rodney, Elizabeth and John.

** X**

A few hours later Aiden returns to Athos with four separate gate addresses of the 9 planets that they had found uninhabited those three were the only ones that they had only been able to fully scan the surface and determine that there were no visible threats. Aiden approached Teyla and asked her for a private word once they were alone he told her that his superiors were not yet willing to bring strangers to their home, but first three addresses were planets that they had traveled to and were completely uninhabited. Since her people were nomadic and the planets were not known to the Wraith as possible food sources they would provide temporary sanctuary for her people if she wished.

He also gave her a GDO and told her the fourth and separate address was to Naboo, but to never go through the gate unless she had input the access code that had been provided for her and received confirmation. He explained that failure to do so would result in the death or destruction of anything that went through the gate because the Naboo people had an iris on the gate that prevented anything they did not want from coming through the gate.

Teyla thanked Aiden and informed him she would speak with her people about their options and present them with the options that the Naboo came up with. Waiting by the gate a several hours late Aiden and his team saw Teyla and the Athosians approaching carrying everything they owned. Once they arrived Teyla informed Aiden of the address they had chosen and dialed the gate, after all of her people were through she pulled him aside and told him "I hope that our people will soon become friends and I would very much like to get to know you better. I do not know the mating rituals of your people, but I am very drawn to you Aiden."

Shocked Aiden replied "I am suspired Teyla I did not know that your people identified as A/B/O. I had not seen any evidence of the dynamic among your people."

With a sigh and slightly saddened look Teyla responded "They do not I am the only one my mother was found injured near the gate many years ago. She was from another world but had been sold by her father to a terrible man in order to pay off a debt that was owed. She was abused so one day when she was left unattended she made a run for it when she reached the gate she dialed to a world she knew and escaped through. Once through the gate she dialed a random address and landed on Athos. My father was the person who found her and nursed her back to health Tana had then stayed with him and later provided him with a daughter. When I was ten she told me of our heritage and how to identify both my role and potential mates, I had begun to give up hope that I would ever find happiness until you came through the gate. So I would very much like to improve the relationship between our people, and attempt to build a relationship between the two of us if you are willing."

With a blush that covered his whole face Aiden replied "I am very interested in seeing if we can build a relationship that we would both be happy with. I will inform my superiors of your wishes to build relations between our people, and that you are a potential mate so they will be willing to let me visit you when I am free."

With a pleased smile Teyla said "I look forward to our next meeting Aiden." Then she too went through the gate.

Recovering from his encounter with the Alpha woman Aiden dialed the gate, entered his GDO code and went through followed closely by his team and the Jumper. Since Aiden had already given a full report earlier he only had to update John and Elizabeth on what planet they had chosen and that Teyla was an Alpha who was actively courting him. In the past he would have worried, but since coming to Pegasus and falling under Colonel Sheppard's command many soldiers had become more open and accepting of their role. It really helped that the highest ranking officer in Pegasus was in fact an Omega even though Col. Sheppard could be as much of a hard ass as Sumner erasing any doubts that Omegas were in any way weaker.

** X**

The next several weeks were relatively calm which was good because at the last monthly meeting Radek brought up the topic that had been skipped at the previous meeting. Whether or not the citizens of Atlantis and Avalon would be able to carry on as subordinates of Earth's governments, his question was initially met with exclamations of shock and denial. However as everyone began to analyze the meanings of that question, John could almost see light bulbs going on in minds around the room which were quickly followed by dismay, sadness, and shockingly determination. As they all realized what would happen to them and the city if all of this information made its way back to Earth, everyone who received the gift would become lab rats and if they survived the experiments they would be turned into weapons for the government. The city would be destroyed if it was considered dangerous, or controlled and exploited if they discovered that the rich and powerful could gain amazing abilities and live for thousands of years. It was agreed that all reports would need to be altered and any mention of the gift and their abilities completely removed. It would be reported that the city was sentient, but nothing would be mentioned of the Leviathans or of the full extent of their power. The city's sentience would be explained away as an advanced computer program and nothing more.

** X**

Relations between the Naboo and the Athosians were steadily improving as was the relationship between Aiden and Teyla. About a month after their initial meeting and several meetings with Elizabeth it was deemed that Teyla could be trusted with the truth about the Naboo. Her first visit to the city was very interesting and even though she was upset that Aiden had lied to her she understood the danger if the wraith ever discovered the truth. Making her decision Teyla formally asked Elizabeth and John if she could move to the city to aid them in gaining allies and fighting the wraith, accepting the offer for help Teyla joined them in the city a few weeks later after getting everything in order with her people. She had left her GDO behind with Halling who took over her position as leader of the Athosians so that they could contact call for aid in an emergency.

Over the last few weeks the team had also discovered why the gate addresses were color coded. SGA 1 had been prepared to head out but the dialing computer would not allow them to dial the address. So they called John to the gate room since he was currently helping the scientists with some Ancient tech. When he arrived he was a bit embarrassed to discover that he was the reason that the gate would accept some addresses so an explanation was in order. With all the teams gathered John explained that there was a reason the gates were color coded and that he had put the program in that locked out certain addresses.

Green was all clear and there would be no issues with people traveling through the gate. Yellow meant caution that the conditions on the other side were unknown which was why most all the address were yellow since all information on the planets was 10,000 years out of date, and the colors would be updated after a team went through to confirm conditions on the other side. Red meant that the gate was a space gate and only to be used when traveling in a Jumper. Black were locked because there was a know threat on the other side, the address that they were attempting to dial was in fact the home world of the Iratus bug the species from which the Wraith evolved. While the information was 10,000 years old it was best not to take any chances when they did not have to, and while studying the Iratus bug could be beneficial they did not have the equipment to safely capture and contain such creatures.

** X**

The next bit of excitement was when SGA 1 with the addition of Teyla and a new scientist visited a planet called Hoff. They had been on the planet for a few days visiting and discussing the potential for opening trade between their people. The planet's civilization was similar in many ways to Earth in the early 1900s, however they discover the people of Hoff are hiding an amazing secret they are developing a drug that could make a person immune to Wraith feedings. They had discovered the base material for the drug 150 years ago when a Wraith had attempted to feed on a persona and the person was completely unaffected.

The Chancellor of Hoff offers the team a sample when one of them comments that Naboo is several decades more advanced than Hoff, the Chancellor hopes that not only will they be able to advance the research farther and perhaps complete it. He also hopes that in the event that Hoff is destroyed there will be another sample and records so that all of the lives and work that have gone into developing it were not in vain. Readily agreeing to the offer Aiden accepts the offered sample and heads for the gate with the agreement that Elizabeth and a team will be coming to Hoff within the next few days to create a trade agreement and work towards building their relationship further.

When they returned to the city everyone was excited that there was a potential to create an immunity to the Wraith feedings. Carson was ordered to take the sample to a sealed and begin experimenting with it immediately. Aiden gave a full report to Elizabeth so she could prepare for her negotiations with Hoff in a couple days.

** X**

On their next journey through the gate it was to a world that Teyla knew and her people had traded with on occasion. They were known as the Genii and according to Teyla they are a society of farmers. So when the Jumper pilot reports that massive underground caverns filled with human life signs the team becomes suspicious, their suspicion only gowns when the Jumper pucks up radio chatter from Tyrus saying "I am bringing them in. All operations to silent." The team is on edge unsure of what lay ahead for them.

Remaining aware of their surroundings Aiden and Teyla have a meeting with Cowen to discuss trade possibilities. Cowen tells them he can offer medicine but they cannot part with food or there will be shortages among their own people. So Cowen is visibly shocked when Aiden declines his offer baiting Cowen by telling him that they are able to grow enough of their own food and produce their own medicines. Aiden counter offers that perhaps their people could trade different types of food to give both greater varieties, however Aiden explained he can only make initial offers all final decisions are up to his superiors. After promising to return in a few days to negotiate further the team returned to the gate, before going through Aiden reached out the pilot _"Stay here, remain cloaked, and continue scanning so we know what we are dealing with." _Four hours later Aiden returned with a note for Cowen stating that Elizabeth and John would be arriving in three days to meet with him and discuss a trade deal, using his return to mask the Jumpers return to Naboo.

**Three days later**

John, Rodney, and Elizabeth stepped through the gate with SGA 1 and 2 as escort and 6 cloaked Jumpers for added protection. Rodney was only really there because John was since they had made an agreement that until they found their Alpha, if one left the city then the other would go along unless it was absolutely impossible. The group was met by Cowen and a few of his people, John and Elizabeth could feel that the Genii were eager to begin discussions since the Genii knew that the Naboo were more advanced than they were. During the during the discussions John subtly baited Cowen a couple times with little bits of information about the Naboo looking for trading partners and allies due to the threat of the Wraith. John stated that they were disappointed because they had yet to find any viable allies who could really contribute anything in the fight against the Wraith. Finally Cowen bit and informed John that he knew of such a group of people, but that they were very secretive having been in hiding from the wraith for hundreds of years. Happy to be getting somewhere in the discussion John told Cowen that the Naboo understood secrecy and asked what it would take to speak with these hidden people.

With a calculating smile Cowen replied that "The group is working on a new weapon capable of destroying Wraith ships, but they are having some problems with the designs and if any among the Naboo were capable of helping it would go a long way to building trust."

With visible curiosity John replies "I would be willing to allow some of our people to look over what they have so far, but how will we be able to work with such a secret weapon when we are unable to even meet them."

Cowen knowing that he would have to give up something in light of the potential gains says "I can show you a bit come with me, long ago our people learned that the best way to hide was to never be seen. So we built our city underground to hide from the Wraith, only a small amount of people life on the surface to grow the crops that are used to feed our people. The citizens that take the risk of living on the surface are honored for their bravery and sacrifices which allow our people to work towards fighting the Wraith"

Cowen leads the group through the woods to a cave they find that the cave is actually a tunnel leading them underground. After about 20 minutes they come to a heavily guarded area, the guards carry what appear to be projectile weapons but they are larger than anything John has seen before. Once they are through they come to a room that has one of Rodney's gadgets beeping causing everyone to halt and the Genii to tense up. Calmly turning to Rodney John asks "Dr. McKay what seems to be the problem."

His answer causes the Naboo to tense as well "There are higher than normal levels of radiation in the area Colonel Sheppard my scanner is simply picking up the radiation and warning us to the dangers"

Turning to Cowen John says "I am going to assume that your new weapon is some type of nuclear device that you are attempting to use to build a bomb. I can easily tell you that our people are capable of building such devices and working with nuclear energy, however we also know the dangers of long term exposure to radiation. So if it is safe to enter, after some brief scans my people will be moving out of the range of radiation."

Focusing on Rodney John asks "Are the levels low enough to that it will be safe for you to scan their designs and see where they are going wrong?"

With a surprised and concerned look Cowen interrupts before Rodney can respond and asks. "What do you mean by long term exposure? We have only been working with this substance for about ten years and have not discovered any issues."

Rodney answers responds to both turning to John first "The levels are fairly low but I will continue to monitor them as we get closer to the source, if they become too high I will let you know." Turning to address Cowen he continues "There are a number of dangers to the human body when dealing with radioactive materials. However they can be put into two categories one is long term low level exposure which causes cancer, and can cause alterations at a genetic level that will show up in the children as mutations. The second is short term high level exposure that results in burns and radiations sickness which can cause premature aging and even death. If you like we can have one of our doctors look at the people who regularly work here to see if they are displaying any of the normal signs of radiation exposure."

With a shaky nod Cowen agreed and the group continued forward as Rodney continued to monitor the levels of radiation. Once they reached the room Rodney confirmed that the radiation levels were safe for a short amount of time, but long term exposure would be dangerous to anyone's health. After looking over the materials present, taking his scans, and looking at the planned designs Rodney told the group he had seen everything he needed then turned and left the room. Once they returned to a radiation free environment Cowen found the group a room everyone sat down and waited for Rodney to finish his analysis. Returning his focus to the group Rodney told Cowen that they were about 100 years behind the Naboo in nuclear technology and the main problem at their current level is their uranium purification. After a nod from John Rodney gives Cowen a diagram and instructions to fix their purification issues that will allow them to keep their schedule to implement nuclear bombs within 5 years.

John asks how the Genii plan to find and destroy Wraith Hives. Cowen who is still reeling having one of their major issues solved in a few minutes replies that they have a Wraith data device recovered from a downed Dart that show the location of a sleeping Hive. If they are able to infiltrate the hive and get up to date information perhaps they could find all of the Wraith Hive locations throughout Pegasus. After a short mental conversation with Elizabeth in which they both agreed that such information would be invaluable, John offers a joint mission to improve the chances of success and to share the recovered information.

**One Week Later**

SGA 1 with 3 Jumpers in addition to the one that regularly shadows them arrive at the agreed upon location, once there Cowen, Tyrus and 6 Genii solders step out of the tree line. Cowen and Aiden give each other a nod and head back for the gate covering the plan one final time before going through the gate. Once they reach the Hive ship the group headed straight for the computer core Dr. Gordin uses the data device to tap into the Wraith systems and updates the data device. On their way out the group comes across a group of captured humans which causes a divide within the group. Teyla and Peter wish to free them but the others are worried that doing so would alert the Wraith to their presence. Tyrus comes up with his own solution by shooting and killing all the captives which earns him hateful glares from everyone since his solution brings a dozen Wraith right to them.

As the fire fight commences it is easy to see that projectile weapons are practically useless due to the number of hits needed to down each enemy. The Naboo are finally able to gain the upper hand when they focus on using the staff weapons and Zats shocking the Genii because the Wraith are dropping dead with two Zat hits and are severely wounded by the staff weapons. As they make a run for it more Wraith begin to show up Tyrus is hit with a stunner and falls, after having witnesses his callous solution with the hostages earlier Aiden is not willing to risk the team for him so orders them to leave hi and keep running Cowen surprisingly doing the same. They luckily reach the gate with little resistance and make it through, however on the other side a few dozen armed Genii are waiting for them sensing a double cross Aiden orders his tem to form a circle weapons aimed at the Genii.

Having rejoined his people Cowen steps forward "Give us the data device and surrender your weapons they will be very valuable to us."

Surprisingly it was Peter that replied "We will give you the device if you let us return through the gate unharmed"

Smirking Cowen asks "How do you plan to that we have the advantage?"

With a smirk of his own Peter hands Aiden the data device with an ounce of C4 stuck to it. Picking up the conversation Aiden replies "We will leave the device here and back up to the gate if anyone shoots or advances before we are through I will blow the device using the C4 attached to it." Setting the device on the ground SGA 1 starts moving towards the gate as soon as there is enough room between the two groups one of the Jumpers moves into place so that any bullets fired will bounce off the Jumper instead of hitting the team. Once at the gate Peter quickly dials and enters his GDO code after receiving the OK they turned and ran through. After everyone was clear Aiden considered it for a moment and decided against blowing the C4 as the gate shut down.

Assembling for the debriefing they were disappointed to have lost the information until Peter breaks into the conversation telling them that when he connected the data device he also linked his tablet to their systems and now has access to the same information as the data device. He explains that while the data device was updating he was able to use his Technokinesis to link his tablet so that it received the same information as the data device but it will take some time to figure out what the information means.

Several hours later they return when Rodney calls them he informs the group that they were able to decipher the information with the help of the city's computers and that it is not good. There are currently 13 Wraith ships active throughout the galaxy, 4 are in the immediate area of the city, and the worst information is that there are over 100 Wraith Hives currently hibernating throughout the galaxy they are not sure of the exact number because some of the dots are over lapping meaning that more than one Hive is hibernating in the same location.

** X**

**I think that will be a good place to end. Yes I have increase the number of Wraith ships because I am giving the city and it inhabitants several advantages so I figured I should increase the number of Wraith to compensate. If there any questions feel free to message me and I will do my best to answer them.**


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter will cover the second half of season one.**

**X**

**Chapter 6**

**X**

During weekly flight training for the newest recipients of the gift it was discovered that a super storm was making its way towards the city, and covered more than 30% of the planet's surface. They could activate he shield for a short time and with their power reserves, but it would drain all of their stored energy reserves. While contemplating their limited energy supply John approached Rodney and Radek with an idea to greatly increase their energy stores, gave them the outline to his idea and left them to calculate if it was doable.

The next morning the senior staff was gathered in the conference room to discuss their plans when Rodney and Radek rushed into the room and told John that it would work and could potentially fill all three ZPMs that they possessed. Elizabeth catching the wording asked what they meant by fill instead of recharge.

Seeing that it was time to explain the truth about the ZPMs John began his explanation "The difference is that ZPMs can only be made and recharged in one way. ZPMs are created with the energy generated when a bonded trio fully connects. The Ancients were amazing geneticists and using the A/B/O bond built a genetic code that had three separate parts one to each the Alphas, Betas, and Omegas. When the three have a healthy bond and connect sexually the three pieces of the code align to generate unbelievable amounts of energy. This is ONLY possible when an Alpha, Beta, and Omega possess a healthy bond. The Ancients built three rooms within the city to channel this energy into useful endeavors and with the aid of the Leviathans found that the energy could be used to build ZPMs by combining the energy various crystals and minerals. It was however essential to keep track of which trios built each ZPM because only that trio could recharge the ZPM. Though ZPMs are still capable of storing massive amounts of raw energy, (one could think of them as super batteries) but even if a ZPM is filled to the brim with raw energy it is still only about 20-25% of the power that recharging it could produce."

With a smile Elizabeth states "So that is one of the reasons you have been encouraging our people to pursue fulfilling relationships."

With a frown John replies "No Elizabeth. While that is certainly one advantage along with a few others that will not be discussed yet humans are categorized into three roles Alpha, Beta, Omega. Each human is meant to find and bond with two others that complete them. It is how our species was meant to be; unfortunately North America forgot this and damaged several generations. Had we already been in complete bonds when we came to the city we would have been able to fully repair her with a month instead of it taking a year. But even if we had been able to build ZPMs from the beginning it would not do us any good because a ZPM has to set or settle for a while before they can be used or they will burn out very quickly."

"How long do they have to set exactly John?" asks Rodney

With a sigh John replies "I honestly don't know it was not viewed as essential information when I was in the chair because we were incapable of creating them so I was just given a summary and told that when we were closer to being able to build ZPMs the subject would be revisited. So Rodney you were saying that my idea would work, what do we need to do for it to succeed?"

Bringing out his tablet and sending the plans to everyone's tablets in the room they looked over the plan. It would require taking the ZPMs to the top of the central tower where the lightning rod was attached. The ZPMs would be put into a naquadah sphere that was built for just this purpose and the lightning rod would be disconnected from the tower and attached to the top of the sphere. The rod would then be given a positive charge to attract the lightning bolts. Due to the dangers of having lightning constantly striking the city it was recommended that all nonessential personnel go to another planet for the duration of the storm.

It was agreed that about 80% of the expedition would be going off world leaving only 6 scientists and a few dozen solders behind to guard the city ensure that the plan was successful. The people who were leaving went to the planet that the Athosians currently inhabited with the cover story that their base was being remodeled and they were taking this time to explore a new planet and get to know the Athosian people better. Unfortunately the Athosians were old trading buddies with the Genii and word got back to them that Naboo's base is being remodeled and only a few people are currently residing within the base.

The Genii eager to get more of the C4 after the initial test showed amazing potential, kidnap some of their scientists to advance their own technology, and get revenge for the death of Tyrus make a daring plan to take control of the base and strip it of anything useful to the Genii.

With the preparations all in place the remaining personnel were just waiting for the storm to hit. Not expecting any activity no one was paying attention to the gate so when it activated SGA 1 being the only team in the gate room dashed to the computer in time to see a dozen Genii had already made it through the gate. Having made it through with his strike team and finding no resistance the team leader Kolya sent back the all clear for the full attack force to come through.

Seeing the Genii moving away from the gate to make room for what he assumed to be reinforcements Aiden entered his code into the computer and initiated emergency lock down protocols that activated the iris, scrambled all radio frequencies, erected shields around the computers in the gate room, sealed the gate room, and locked everyone out of the computers until John, Rodney, and Elizabeth were able to enter their own codes at the same time and unlock all the systems. Looking through the shields that now surrounded them SGA 1 saw the confused looks on the Genii's faces; their attention was then drawn to the numerous bangs that signified that the iris destroyed whatever it was that just traveled through the gate.

Scowling furiously Kolya looked around until he spotted SGA 1, getting everyone's attention as he pointed his weapon at SGA 1 his men mimicking his actions he roared. "What did you do, and where are my men?"

With a sinister smile Aiden asks "Did you all hear those bangs a few moments ago?"

Kolya questioningly replies "Yes?"

Aiden smiling answers "That was your men dying as the iris prevented their bodies form rematerializing every impact you heard was another one of your little invasion force dying in an attempt to follow you through the gate."

Enraged by the loss if his men Kolya begins firing at SGA 1 his remaining men following his lead, only to be shocked as the bullets ricochet and wound 5 of his remaining men. Ordering his men to cease fire he turns his shocked gaze to SGA 1 and asks "How is this possible you are uninjured and our own bullets are hitting us"

Aiden replies "When you came through the gate I initiated the lock down protocols which activated the iris, sealed the room, and erected shields around us. Your only options are to surrender or die!"

Further angered by his compete failure Kolya prepares to attack again. This time though SGA 1 returns fire killing every solder that raises their weapons. When all of the Genii are down Aiden yells "Anyone who wishes to live will throw their weapons towards the wall and surrender!" Weapons are thrown from only three locations the throwers putting their hands up in the air showing that they are unarmed. Aiden and Teyla step through the shield and cautiously move towards the downed solders, thanks to the Ancient life signs detector they know that the three that surrendered are the only ones alive. After ensuring that the injured survivors are stripped of all weapons Aiden sends them all into unconsciousness with a single Zat shot to each one. Then he reaches out to everyone in the city to give them a summary of the situation and asks John, Rodney, and Elizabeth to find a terminal and input their codes to end the lock down, and for some who are capable of healing to come to the gate room to treat the injured Genii.

After dealing with their Genii prisoners they returned their attention to the Storm and their energy gathering the computers warned that a massive tidal wave was heading for the city, and they would need to raise the shield for a short time to protect the city. Activating the shield drained about 70 percent of their reserves, but with the city was safe. While the storm finished it trek across the planet, with the major threats behind them John turned his focus to the failed invasion and the three survivors John and Aiden entered their minds and gathered every useful piece of information they could. After they were finished Evan was called in to wipe all of their memories from the moment they stepped through the gate. Taking the prisoners and returning to the gate room John told Peter to dial the Genii home world then John, Rodney, Evan, and Aiden levitated the prisoners and the corpses through the gate leaving Kolya for last. John attached a note to Kolya's chest telling Cowen that they failed and another such attempt would result in retaliation, but for now John felt that the loss of all but three of their men was enough of a cost then levitated Kolya's body through.

Once the storm subsided they were happy to learn that all three of the ZPMs were full and could power the chair and the shields in the event of an enemy siege on the city. A couple days later when everyone had returned everyone was informed of the attack and to be on the lookout for any Genii when going through the gate.

After everything settled down it was discovered that the city had been struck by several stray bolts of lightning. The strikes had woken Atlantis and Avalon from their slumber and the two sent all of the extra energy into producing the gift so that there were enough doses to have every member of the expedition receive one. All of the residents within the city had fallen in love with it and had come to the conclusion that they wished to stay so they would need the gift to be contributing residents.

**X X**

A few weeks later while check looking through the database Rodney found references to an Ancient weapons platform about 15 hours from the city and after checking the long range scanners found that it was still intact. That night in their quarters Rodney asked John if they could go to the satellite to see what condition it was in reluctantly John agreed but they would be taking two additional Jumpers with SGA 1-2 as back up. It took a few days to line up everyone's schedules up, and after 15 hours of flying John was thanking the Ancients repeatedly for building auto pilot into the Jumpers. Once they docked with the satellite and liked their tablets they were disappointed to discover that 10,000 years of neglect had left the satellite in desperate need of repair. Rodney and Peter theorized that in an emergency it would be possible to squeeze out one possibly two shots before the system overloaded and burned out. The two scientists made a full list of parts necessary to repair the satellite to full working order, and even a planned upgrade to install a shield generator.

On the return flight Rodney was messing with the scanners and found a downed Wraith Cruiser, after a short discussion it was agreed that searching the wreckage could prove to be useful he also ordered them that if they were able to capture a Wraith alive to do so. John reminded them that there could be Wraith present and told them he did not want a repeat of the MDF incident. With that jolt of reality the SGA 1 went in from the front and John and Rodney joined SGA 2 at the rear with one member of each team constantly monitoring the life signs detector for any movement. It turns out that Wraith are capable of cannibalism as they found a number of Wraith bodies that showed evidence of being fed upon. In the end they found only a single surviving Wraith who kicked several of their asses before they were finally able to subdue him shockingly it took two shots from a Zat to knock him unconscious. Once he was down the newly dubbed Steve was wrapped in metal wires and put into the jumper with John and Rodney. Rodney was able to alter the Jumpers shields to contain Steve in a bubble and the three jumpers headed for home.

Though Elizabeth was unhappy with the idea of testing on a living specimen she was forced to concede John's point that if they were to have any chances against the Wraith then they needed to understand them. John did however promise that all testing would be limited to samples that were taken from Steve.

**X X**

On their next trip though the gate SGA 1 encountered a planet that was untouched by the Wraith, when questioned about this the local inhabitants tell SGA 1 that the mighty Athar protects them. After communicating with the priests of Athar they meet the high priestess of Athar and invite Chaya to return with them so they may discuss the protection that Athar grants his people. Though it is against protocol Aiden takes Chaya back to the city because he something inside of him is telling him to take her to the city. Once back in the city SGA 1 approached John, Elizabeth, and Rodney with Chaya in tow and most were shocked by John's greeting. "It has been a long time Chaya Atlantis and Avalon send their greetings though they are confused as to why you are masquerading as a mortal when you ascended 11,000 years ago. It confuses them as to why you appear to be clinging to mortal life when the Ancients abandoned life in pursuit of their precious ascension."

With a sad smile Chaya replied "Greetings Keeper. Greetings Atlantis. Greetings Avalon. As for the reason I appear to be clinging to life after I ascended my home world was attacked by the Wraith and I could not bear to watch it ravaged so I lashed out and destroyed the Wraith vessels. Because I broke the noninterference that the other ascended put in place I was punished. My punishment was that I am bound to my home world for eternity only able to protect those born there from the Wraith while the rest of the galaxy is ravaged by them."

With a frown John agrees "Yes that sounds like the Ancients that I have hears about. Cowards and arrogant fools who create problems then leave their messes for us mere mortals to clean up, like they did with the Wraith." Before anything else could be said panic flooded the room as Chaya muttered "I should never have left" turned incorporeal and went through the gate back to Proculus. Turning to Aiden John ordered him to return to Proculus to access the situation and aid Chaya it she needed it. Thankfully no help was needed and any further conversation was pushed to an unknown later date due to Chaya's reluctance to leave Proculus any time soon.

**X X X**

During the next monthly meeting a new issue was brought up by several concerned women and a few male Omegas. None of the women had had a period in months and the Omegas biyearly heat had not occurred at first some had attributed it to the stress, however now they realized that everyone who had receive the gift was currently off their regular cycles. With a completely red face John realized that he had missed three heats since receiving the gift and had not even realized it. With a muttered "Be right back" John practically fled to the chair to get the answers to this important question. Ten minutes late a much relieved John returned and explained that "Since our life span is now measure in the thousands of years which has basically slowed our body's aging down to a crawl it also affects Omega heats and women's monthly cycles. Avalon told me that it varies from person to person but Omegas will usually have one or two heats per decade, and women will have one period every two to four years. I am told that the symptoms will be a bit stronger, but generally there is little difference."

John's explanation was met with a wave of cheers from the women several making statements like. "Accepting the gift would have been worth it if this was the only benefit." A few of the women were oddly patting the walls thanking the city for taking away their terrible monthly visitors. Moving along from that terribly awkward topic and the strangely happy responses Peter moved to the center of the platform drawing everyone's attention. Over the last few weeks I have been reviewing the Ancient records and I have compiled a list of gate addresses where ZPMs could be found 10,000 years ago, I am unsure of their current status but it is more that we had before. Getting a nod of approval from John for his initiative John told them to gear up and start at the top of the list ad work their way down.

**X X X**

SGA 1 taking the first address on the list came to a planet that was inhabited by a group called the brotherhood. They worshiped the ZPMs and called them the Potentia after searching through some old records SGA 1 was lead to an underground room that was supposed to hold the Potentia, but in order to get it one had to solve the riddle. After several grueling hours of work Aiden and Peter were able to solve the riddle recover the Potentia, however as they were heading back to the gate a faction of the brotherhood all wielding guns ordered SGA 1to surrender the Potentia to them or die. The Jumper pilot playing on the beliefs of the brotherhood used his telepathy to project into all of their minds. "_Leave my people be they are doing my work I tasked them with retrieving my Potentia and returning it to me!" _ With the locals scared stiff SGA 1 made for the gate at full speed, just as they were stepping through the gate they saw several members of the brotherhood break through the tree line and take aim at them. Just as they made it through the gate a stray bullet caught Aiden in the wrist blowing off his hand and continuing on into Peter's thigh since was standing in front of him the injury causing Peter to fall forward launching the ZPM into the air.

Seeing two team members fall and the ZPM go air borne Elizabeth radioed to the infirmary as John and Rodney ran forward to help and Evan used his telekinesis to catch the ZPM before it could hit the floor. John went to Aiden and Rodney focused on Peter, Rodney used his telekinesis to pull the bullet from Peter's thigh then placed his hand over the wound to begin healing. John was having a harder time as he was using his telekinesis to slow the blood loss, but had no idea as to how to heal the wound since most of the hand was missing. Teyla at seeing her Omega bleeding out and the man she hoped to become he Beta injured was clearly distraught, her entire being was focused on helping Aiden as she joined John and placed her hands around Aiden's mangled hand and focused her will to fix the damage inflicted upon her Omega. A few minutes after receiving the call Carson and his team came running into the gate room, taking in the scene before him and the larger puddle of blood beneath Aiden went to him while sending his second to Peter.

Having the easier of the two tasks Rodney was almost finished when the nurse arrived, and the task having drained him more than he realized happily moved to the side and allowed the nurses to take over. As he turned around he saw John swaying and Teyla fall backwards unconscious. Confused as to what happened he moved closer to steady John and see what condition Aiden was in. As he got his arm around John's waist he heard the shocked exclamation from John so he turned and asked what was wrong. John relied "His hand is whole, when I got to him it was in pieces and I did not know how to heal it." Seeing the disbelief on Rodney and Carson's faces John just pointed to the right where a bloody pinkie and ring finger lay on the ground then pointed to the Aiden's fully intact hand.

Not knowing how to answer Carson settled for asking what happened do John explained "I was slowing the blood loss trying to figure out what to do when Teyla came forward and wrapped her hands around the mangled hand. When she did this I felt a great build up of energy in her then it flowed through her arms into her hands and towards the injury so I did the same and focusing all of my energy into her hands to aid her in whatever task she was doing." Since Teyla was unconscious they would not be getting any information out of her so the injured headed for the infirmary, john and Rodney went to find some food and everyone else went back to their tasks.

The next day after thoroughly checking the ZPM they found that it was full charged and ready to be installed at any time, however it would only be needed in emergencies because the city gains the power needed for daily functions from natural sources making it completely self sufficient. After hearing that Teyla is awake John, Rodney, and Elizabeth head for the infirmary to speak with her about what happened the day before, and a shocking discovery that had been made. They had researched several documents left over from the Ancients and found many variations of healing, but there was no mention the level of regeneration that Teyla demonstrated yesterday. So Carson had taken a blood sample to see if he could find any anomalies there that would give them provide answers for her amazing ability since no one had ever shown such abilities in the history of the Ancients.

A shocked Carson had come to them early this morning and told them that a few markers in Teyla's DNA were the same as the Wraith. This is why the group was currently in the infirmary to speak with Teyla and hopefully uncover the secrets of her genetic similarities with the Wraith. After explaining the situation to her Teyla had a concerned look on her face and told them that there was a story passes down from her father about why his father had joined the Athosians. The story said that the man had been culled but woke up in strange room where a Wraith had injected him with something and then put him in a cell. Over a period years he had been subject to many more experiments until one day he was released. He had been thrilled to escape alive, but when he reaches the village the locals had shunned him forcing him to flee to another planet when they began to turn violent and ended up on Athos.

"Do you know what planet he came from Teyla?" asked John

"Yes the address was passed down as a part of the story" Replied Teyla

"OK. Carson says that you will be able to get out of here later today so tomorrow morning you will take SGAs 1-2 with you to that address and find out what you can about these experiments." Replied John before the three of them departed the infirmary.

The records recovered from the Wraith lab were disturbing it seems that a rouge Wraith scientist was experimenting on humans in an attempt to make humans more compatible with the feeding process so the Wraith would get more food from each human they fed upon. However it had an unforeseen result, all of the test subjects began to display violent behavior and the telepathic abilities of the Wraith. So the scientist had released the subjects out into the village hoping that several generations of breeding with normal humans would dilute the effects so he could begin his experiments anew. At some point after the release of the subjects his experiments were discovered and the Wraith culled the planet to extinction and it is assumed that the scientist was killed.

The most disturbing information discovered though was the fact that the Ancients were directly responsible for the birth of the Wraith. It appears that when the Ancients first came to Pegasus and began seeding life throughout the galaxy one of the planets they chose was the home worlds of the Iratus bug. At some point the Iratus bug mixed their DNA with a human and evolved over the course of several million years before journeying out into the stars in search of new food sources where they encountered the Ancients. The ancients had at first attempted to negotiate with the Wraith mistaking advanced for civilized and paid for that mistake with their lives. The meeting had taken place in the city and the delegation that was meeting with the Wraith was led by several high ranking citizens within Ancient society. Half way through the meeting the Wraith Queens had attacked killing all of the Ancients then escaping through the gate before the Ancients could recover from their shock. It was this attack that sparked the war between the Wraith and the Ancients; it was also this event that evolved the Wraith into the creatures they are today.

It was also discovered that the Wraith are in constant communication with each other over a telepathic link and it that link which allowed Teyla to sense when the Wraith are present. Thankfully after receiving the gift and finding out she was a telepath she trained to erect barriers around her mind to protect not only herself, but also to protect the secrets that lie within. Carson theorized that it was her Wraith genetics that boosted her natural healing ability into regeneration since the Wraith are able to heal from almost any injury as long as they have the energy.

**X X X**

Going into the monthly meeting John knows it is going to be extremely emotional and painful for everyone not only because of the impending threat that was picked up on the long range scanners a few days ago, but also due to the betrayal that each and every member has been dealt by those on Earth. A betrayal that John has the task if delivering to them thankfully his task will be aided by the files that he has copied and uploaded into the system so everyone can view them. There is however good news their efforts to recover ZPS had yielded amazing results they were able to find five more fully charged and 4 that were depleted giving them a grand total of six fully charged ZPMs, 4 depleted ZPMs, and the three that they had charged during the storm.

Stepping up onto the platform in the meeting hall John drew the attention of all. With a sigh he began "There is some information that I need to share with all of you. Then months after we arrived and the city had recovered enough to focus on things other than healing Avalon informed me that she maintained a subspace connection with all of the Ancient outposts. Not fully understanding where she was going with this I asked her what she meant. Her reply was that she was currently in contact with the Ancient outpost in Antarctica and could easily facilitate us to communicate with people on Earth." Shock and outrage swept the room even Elizabeth was giving him "the look" so he continued. "I figured that I would surprise everyone in the city with the information and hoped to allow you all to contact your families. So I had Avalon search the systems of Earth using all of our names and the information in our files to access our E-Mails so we could get caught up on what we had all missed since we left Earth, and compose replies. As Avalon was doing this she discovered that according to the solders families we are all KIA, MIA, or POWs and all of the civilians are listed as dead killed in various accidents." When John finished this there was pandemonium, exclamations of denial, and shouts of anger. Holding up his hands John got them to quiet long enough to tell them that all of the information was on the city server and gave them the access code so that they could read it for themselves.

Three hours later once everyone had read the information and had time enough to calm down so they could discuss this new information. John retook his position "There is a second part to this betrayal that shows how deep the corruption runs. Once all of us were listed as dead, POW, or MIA all of the pay and benefits our families were receiving stopped, however we are still listed as alive and healthy by our governments all of whom are all still sending our pay checks to our accounts. The money is then withdrawn and routed to another account directly under the control of the IOA. Once I found this with the aid of Avalon I found that the IOA was responsible for our current listings, and that they have repeatedly blocked all attempts by various people to check on us. General O'Neal was in fact ordered by the president not to discuss anything about the city or our expedition with the Asgard or he would be brought up on charges of treason. It appears that those in charge want any and all discoveries to be solely under their control. In fact the IOA has gained considerable influence in multiple governments around the world since several of their senior members control the various laboratories that are responsible for a number of the most recent breakthroughs in medicine and technology. Breakthroughs that were made with alien technology they claim it is to help offset the cost of maintaining the Star Gate program however only about 60% of the money made actually makes it to where it is meant to go."

Pausing for several minutes to give them time to digest this John began again. "What we must all now consider is what to do about it because with the amount of money and deception involved the IOA will probably be ripped apart if this information ever came to light, and the people responsible for revealing it would most likely be killed. There also has to be several high ranking officials in each government involved for them to accomplish this who would all do everything in their power to ensure that this information never sees the light of day. So you all need to think about how we should proceed because the only way that I have seen for us to tell our families we are alive and not put them in more danger is to reveal the Star Gate program to the world." Waiting until the noise died down before continuing.

"Now there is a reason that I am sharing all of this information with you now. Our long range scanners indicate that there are 4 Wraith hives on a direct course for this city we are unsure why, but we believe that the Wrath acquired our gate address and knowing that the Ancients had the same address are coming here. The connection to the information is that while we have the power for some to flee to Earth or even call for reinforcements with this new information I don't believe that either action would be advisable especially with our new abilities none of us would ever see the outside of a science lab with us as the experiments. So I am planning on fighting the Wraith and the city will be doing the same all of you need to choose what path you wish to take and be prepared for the consequences. I realize that we have discussed the issue of us being able to maintain relations with Earth, but after this latest disappointment I see no reason to maintain my allegiance to people that threw me away and while I will not view them as an enemy they will not be seen as a friend either." With that John turned and left the room to begin preparations.

** X**

**OK all so here is my latest chapter hope you enjoyed. I don't have a Beta so I am sorry if there any errors I don't mind if they are pointed out just don't be rude about it.  
**

** X**


	7. Chapter 7

**I am going to refer to the Expedition members as Lanteans from this point on instead of the Expedition members.**

**Chapter 7**

**X X X**

The city was a flurry of activity Rodney and Radek in an amazing stroke of genius had taken the Drone schematics broken them down and altered them so now the city was equipped with three different types of Drone. The first was the original Drone, the second was the altered Drone that Rodney designed with a 1 gigaton payload, and the last is the newest model it is about a quarter the size of the original. Specifically designed to take out Darts and similar sized crafts it has a homing function that targets Wraith technology and carries a small amount of C4 that detonates on impact. All five ACLs were working at maximum capacity one building the Ship Buster Drones (SBD), two normal Drones, and two the mini Drones. Once they had 3,000 SBDs built Rodney tasked the ACL to build a cloaking device and a shield generator that they were going to install on the weapons platform to protect it from being destroyed by the Wraith when they arrived in the solar system.

Peter had proposed a plan to destroy the Wraith Hives before they ever reached the city he showed them the path that the Wraith were taking and presented two locations that the Wraith would exit hyperspace close enough to a star gate that the Lanteans could use Jumpers to launch SBD and destroy the Hives before they ever reached the solar system. Ten Jumpers left that afternoon and the Lanteans waited to hear back on the status of the mission which sounded quite simple in theory. The Jumpers would be cloaked and waiting for the Hives to exit hyperspace, once the first Hive arrived they would begin the assault Launching two SBDs at each hive before the Wraith even knew what hit them.

Several hours later the gate activated and the Jumpers returned all of them showing signs of battle along with a few injured personnel who got electrical burns when some of the Jumpers took direct hits causing the systems to overload. When everyone had been looked at and all injures taken care of, it was time for the debriefing. During the debriefing the Lanteans found out that the program they were using to track the Wraith tracked only the Hives which is why they were surprised when the Cruisers arrived with the Hives. With the information gathered during the battle the Lanteans would alter their future strategies to include at least two Cruisers for each Hive. It was a few weeks later when the program monitoring the Hive's movements alerted the Lanteans that all nine of the active Hives had joined together and were now on a direct course for the city, however their path was different from the previous Hives and would not bring them within range of any star gates to launch another surprise attack. It was estimated it would take the Wraith two to three week to reach the city depending upon how often they stopped to feed. It was also about the time that the vessel Daedalus would be arriving with reinforcements from Earth.

** X**

The Daedalus' captain was Colonel Caldwell but with General O'Neill on board he had overall command, the reinforcements was actually a trick by O'Neill to get a number of solders and scientists off of Earth and to give the Lanteans some more man power. Many of those who would be joining the inhabitants of the city were angry with the IOA for their abandonment of the members of the expedition, however no one other than SG 1 knew what they would find when they reached the city of the Ancients since as far as they knew there had been no contact. Jack had used much of his political capital just to get the mission together using the excuse that with a full charged ZPM they would be able to power the city and it could be far more useful to them. So using the greed of the IOA and their various allies across the world Jack had worked long and hard to find solders and scientists that would willingly join the Lanteans since they had little love for the political climate on Earth. One concession that Jack had to make was that they could not bring any Asgard along since the IOA believed that the Asgard would swoop in and steal what they believed to be theirs, so Sam was given a crash course on how to operate the Asgard beaming technology aboard the Daedalus during the voyage.

One of the solders that Jack had pushed for and been successful in getting was his mini me Jonathan O'Neill, Jack had become increasing worried about him since the IOA found out about him and repeatedly requested to be able to run some "tests" on him in hopes of replicating the Asgard cloning technology. Having a long history of odd situations on various planets throughout the Milky Way Jack held no illusions about what they really wanted with Jonathan and planned to get him as far away from the influence of the IOA as possible. Since Jack was bringing his mini me along he also had to bring Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell a Beta since he and Jonathan had started to bond. That was another thing that bothered Jack he was an Alpha and from what he knew his clone should have been an Alpha also but he was not, no he was an Omega. Something that he had trouble with since he had fifty years of memories being an Alpha, but his body was now Omega. Boy had that been a shock when his first heat had hit him when he fully believed that he would be an Alpha as well. It was discovered that the marker Thor had put into Jack had caused the shift since all humans have the genes to be Alpha, Beta, or Omega but only one of the three can be dominate.

** X**

Since Aiden and Peter were injured Teyla had worked hard to get the three off them to spend time together, finally all of them were comfortable enough with each other that the bonds had started to form. Before they could finalize the bond, Avalon had reached out to them and stopped them telling them to speak to the keeper about their bonding first. Now the three of them were standing outside John's office waiting to speak about why they were asked to hold off on their bonding.

"Enter"

"Thank you for seeing us John" Spoke Teyla

"It is no problem Teyla. What can I help you with?"

Red faced Aiden spoke up "A few days ago the three of us were preparing to finalize our bond when Avalon reached out to and told us to wait, and that we needed to speak with you. I don't understand John I thought it was a good thing to have bonded trios in the city why did she stop us?" a frustrated Aiden replied

With a nod of understanding John locked his door and focused on the three in front of him. "It is an amazing thing that you are going to bond" John replied happily "The reason the city stopped you is that she wanted you to get the most out of your bonding and I have not yet explained that to the everyone because I did not know that anyone had yet reached the stage where the information would be necessary. The city has a dozen specially built rooms that are designed specifically for bonding those rooms are built so that when you bond the energy generated does not escape as it would if you bonded somewhere else. The room contains the energy and reflects it back into the inhabitants in doing so it enhances your bodies beyond what would happen naturally since most of the energy would be lost. Your bodies will gain enhanced healing, you will be stronger, have faster reflexes, your five senses will be increase, and it may strengthen your abilities. These rooms are the same rooms used to create and recharge the ZPMs though never with an initial bonding, that is done after your bond is settled. Once your bond is settled your natural healing will kick in it is similar to the Wraith and when it does you will find that all of your old injuries will fade and eventually disappear and your body will regress in age until you are in your physical prime. It is important that you maintain a certain level of body fat at all times because like the Wraith your healing ability needs energy to work and stored body fat provides that energy."

Giving the three a few minutes to digest the information John asked. "Is there anything else you want to ask or discuss, or would you like me to show you one of the rooms and which of the four functions you need to pick?"

"The room please." was the unanimous reply.

"OK. You will want to go to the cafeteria and gather enough food and water for about a week and then meet me at the transporter." John told them

Ten minutes later John met them at the transporter and put in his access code when the light faded and they stepped out they were in a part of the city they had never been before. When they commented on this the answer was that they were not in the city but in the heart of Atlantis and Avalon. The reason that it was protected by a password was that there was only a few reasons to come here and they were about to take part in one of them. John pointed them to a room and told them to have fun, and that when they were finished that they did not need a password to leave only get here. With a smile John stepped back into the transporter and headed to tell Elizabeth and Rodney about the happy.

** X**

They were as prepared as they were going to get, the drone bays had a considerable stockpile of 10,000 Drones, 15,000 mini Drones, and 3,000 Ship Buster Drones. The weapons platform had been upgraded with both the cloaking device and a shield generator. It was set to auto defense so if it detected a Wraith vessel in within firing range the shield would activate automatically and it would begin charging the weapon to fire. The MDFs had also been equipped with both a shield and a cloaking device which used the geothermal energy to power both of which could be activated from the city. Now all they could do was wait for the Wraith to arrive, it seemed that the Wraith remembered the weapons platform since they were avoiding it completely.

The Lanteans initial plan was to cloak the city and wait to see what the Wraith did if they powered their weapons then the cloak would go down and the shield would be activated. They were hoping to avoid a fight for as long as they could since they still lacked any warships and they only had 6 ZPMs for a power source. Though Teyla's new trio would help them on that front they were not ready yet to build any ZPMs and there was still an issue with that which had not yet been explained to any other than the senior staff. Even if they could build ZPMs they could not use them for some time since ZPMs had to set for years before they were ready to be utilized or they would burn out within minutes.

The day arrived and the Lanteans were spread out over the city all heavily armed in the event that the Wraith breached the shield. John, Rodney and Evan were in the chair room after making an interesting discovery that the chair room actually had three chairs. They were meant to be used by the Keepers bond mates, but since he only had one Evan had offered to fill the role of Alpha. John would focus on the enemies in space, Evan the enemies that entered the atmosphere to attack the city, and Rodney would monitor the systems throughout the city in the event the shield was breached he was responsible for keeping track of the invaders and helping the Lanteans find and kill them.

It was a few hours after the Wraith arrived; the Hives were currently in orbit around the planet while thousands of Darts and several Cruisers scoured the planet looking for traces of the city. Finally the Lanteans thought they were retreating when the Cruisers and Darts returned to space, instead the Hives and Cruisers powered up their weapons and began bombarding the planet in a grid like pattern in an attempt to find the hidden city. Knowing their time was limited the Lanteans waited until the ships were as close as they dared before deactivating the cloak and raising the shield. Only seconds after the shield activated the Hives and Cruisers focused their fire on the city and the Darts reentered the atmosphere and headed for the city.

Evan, Rodney, and John settled into their chairs and set about their tasks John was only launch four SBD at a time due to the distance they had to travel he did not wish to waste them by hitting the wrong targets. First he focused on the cruisers systematically taking them out there were twenty in all so it took five separate Launches to destroy them before he focused on the Hives.

While he was doing this Evan was destroying Darts all over the city, due to the short distance it was much easier to control them allowing him to launch several dozen at a time.

Rodney was not having a good day. Why? Because the Ancients in their infinite wisdom had set their shields to prevent anyone from being taken by the Wraith they had never bothered to augment the city's shields to prevent the Wraith from beaming in. there were now a few hundred Wraith throughout the city and the Lanteans were engaging them on all fronts. Avalon had erected shields in several areas to prevent the Wraith from gaining access, but that still left Rodney with the responsibility of monitoring them all to make sure that they did not gain access to any of the systems.

John was hitting each Hive with two SBD due to their massive size he wanted to be thorough and not leave them any chance of survival. He had lost five Drones already due to Darts targeting them though the resulting explosion had wiped out dozens of Darts each. There were only six hives left when the Daedalus exited hyperspace in the middle of the battle almost getting hit by the SBDs John was directing towards his nest target. Annoyed at the interruption Atlantis told him how to create a holographic projection of himself into the ship to find out who they were. So John appeared into the bridge of the Daedalus with a scowl firmly in place and not recognizing anyone barked out. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Colonel Caldwell was about to reply when Jack and SG 1 came rushing onto the bridge. Jack keeping up the facade of knowing nothing replied. "Colonel Sheppard this is Earth's newest model of star ship the Daedalus we are here to see if you are still alive, bring reinforcements, and lend aid if you need it which it appears you do."

John's reply shocked all those who were not in the know and even surprised those who were. With a smirk John replied "That is where you are wrong general I am just finishing up with these ships then will be moving on to the Darts. Once that is finished I will join the others in the city to finish up with the interlopers. Now I don't have time to chat I have more ships to destroy please stay out of the way." With that the hologram blinked out and four more Drones shot up through the atmosphere and destroyed two more Hives.

The force and size of the explosion shocked those on the bridge as now they began to realize that perhaps John was right. Moments after the last Hive was destroyed all of the Darts still in space turned and began attacking the Daedalus while those around the city flew straight into the shield. With all the Darts around the city gone John and Evan turned their attention to the Darts attacking the Daedalus. Just as they were beginning to be overwhelmed with sheer numbers there are explosions all around them as the duo destroy the Darts with wave after wave of Drones. At the same time Rodney appears as a hologram and tells them to settle into a stable orbit because they will be busy for some time and don't have time to bring everyone up to date on to make them useful before anyone can reply he blinks out.

"Well Rodney has certainly mellowed, he only insulter us once and that was only minor, usually he tells you how stupid and worthless you are in every sentence." Spoke Sam earning her a few snickers from those who knew Rodney, and shocked looks from everyone else. Moving to the console Sam tapped into the radio chatter going on within the city so that they could have some idea of what was going on.

With the external threats destroyed the trio turned their focus to the city there were 24 Wraith remaining with the city walls 276 had already been killed. There were no casualties but numerous injuries only 10 had required healing and thankfully no one had been fed upon yet. Once the Lanteans had been updated on the situation the teams fanned out and began sweeping the city for the remaining Wraith. Setting up in their chairs the trio found themselves exhausted not understanding why Atlantis answered.

_It is because you have never done anything like this before or for that long you have been in the chair for three hours directing Drones. It is also because you are not bonded your body is not yet fully equipped to handle the stress._

_Thank you Atlantis-_replied John

** X**

Seven hours after the siege began there were still 7 Wraith missing, but the teams had scanned the entire city but could not find them meaning they were in hibernation somewhere. So Rodney set the city's scanners to monitor the entire city for Wraith life signs and alert the staff immediately because everyone was exhausted and they still had to deal with the Daedalus. This time it was Evan who appeared on the bridge "Here are the coordinates to the pier that this ship can land on. Once you land the ship will be placed into quarantine, meaning a shield will be erected around it keeping everything out and you in. We are all exhausted and there are still nine enemy combatants unaccounted for that the city's scanners are looking for, and we frankly don't have the energy to bring you all up to speed enough to be helpful and not get your selves killed so we will start on that in the morning."

Just as Evan finished and before O'Neill could stop him Colonel Caldwell spoke up. "Now wait just a minute solder both the general and I are senior in rank to you and we will be giving the orders!"

As he finished he was met with a fiercely scowling Evan Lorne "Senior in rank to me are you? Now that the IOA has deemed us valuable enough to bother with you think you can just come out here. Throw your ass around like it means something and think that we will all just cower before you and answer with a meek yes sir. Well I got news for you Colonel fuck you! My only commanding officer is Colonel John Sheppard the man who has been leading and protecting us for the last two years while you assholes on Earth tossed us aside like dirty tissues. Earth could have sent someone out here anytime within the last two years or even asked the Asgard to come and check on us, but they did not the ABANDONED US! So you will do as your told or you can turn this ship around and go straight back to Earth and if you even think about acting hostile you can join the Hive ships out there." Pausing and giving the Colonel a raised eyebrow "So what will it be?"

Before Caldwell could create more issues or make more of an ass of himself O'Neill stepped forward "We will be happy to land I have several things to discuss with Colonel Sheppard, but they can all wait until you are rested though I would like to get some fresh air soon."

With a nod Evan replied "We will see you in the morning then goodnight general" and blinked out.

Turning to Caldwell Jack saw many shocked faces ignoring them for now "Great job Colonel perhaps in the future you could at least try not to piss off people with the ability to destroy you little ship a hundred times over. Land this vessel were you were told and no one is to leave this ship until I say otherwise, anyone who does will be shot on sight." Turning to address the room "What did you people expect they have been on their own for two years with no help knowing that Earth could have at least sent someone to check on them and chose not to. Mostly because they have deluded themselves into believing that the Asgard would steal all of the technology away from them." Then muttered mostly to himself. "Morons" As he left the bridge and headed for his quarters for an uncomfortable night's sleep.

Having listened in on Evans conversation John already disliked Caldwell. Having done everything that they could the Lanteans headed to bed for some much needed rest. The next morning John, Rodney, Elizabeth, Evan, and Aiden walked out to the Daedalus to meet their new quests and some who might be joining them. First off the ramp was the general, his mini me, Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, and Cameron right behind him. Following close behind them was Colonel Caldwell and most of the bridge crew. During the greeting with the generals group John was very uneasy because he was getting two sets of emotions from Caldwell so he reached out to the others in the group.

_Elizabeth what do you sense from Caldwell?_

_It is very strange John it is as though he is two people._

_Perhaps he is, or one person and one parasite_-replied Rodney

_What do we do?_ Was the unanimous though among the group

_We contain and provoke him. If he turns out to be Goa'uld then we will go from there._

Turning his attention to the man in front of him Aiden, Rodney, and Evan moved to the sides and trapped him in place. "Colonel it is nice to have you here. I hope you had a good night's rest." Said John with a smile when the other three nodded John reached out his had to shake with Caldwell knowing that not saluting would piss him off which it did. "You salute and officer when you meet them boy!"

Continuing to smile John replied "Oh even if I found you in any way deserving of being saluted I will never recognize a Goa'uld as anything other than a parasite in need of extermination." As John finished Caldwell's eyes flashed gold and he replied "You will bow before me you foolish human for I am your god!" The Goa'uld had a socked look on its face as he attempted to lunge forward to get a hold of John. The reason for this was that Evan, Rodney, and Aiden were holding him in place with their telekinesis.

"You will surrender to us and leave that human's body without damaging it immediately or we will destroy your mind and remove you by force!" Ordered John as he faced the captive with a face of determination the Goa'uld replied "Ha ha foolish human, there is nothing that you can do to ahhhh. What are ahhhh?" With Elizabeth's help John attacked the Goa'uld's mind causing extreme pain while the other three forced him to his knees in front of John. As the Goa'uld's knees hit the ground he gave a fierce yell and looked up at John. As he did this the Goa'uld parasite flew from Caldwell's mouth straight at John in a vain attempt to take him over, however to the further shock of the Daedalus' crew the parasite stopped in mid air and was levitating between the two men.

John turned to Aiden "Take control of this parasite. Get it into a tank and keep it alive it may be useful. Rodney give me a hand with the Colonel." Ordered John as he moved towards the downed colonel to heal the wound left over from the parasite's attempted escape. Once they finished healing Caldwell John turned to Jack and said "General every member of this crew is now back under quarantine until they can be given full medical scans to ensure no one else is infected with a parasite. We also need to find out who the one in Caldwell was working for so we know who our enemies are." Turning John saw that Evan was staring at Jonathan O'Neill and Cameron Mitchell and they were staring straight back at him, that coupled with the attraction that was pouring off all three of them John realized that they were feeling the pull. At the same time Jack placed a hand on his shoulder and gestured towards the three with a nod indicating that he saw the same.

"Major Lorne why don't you call your team and then escort the general, his mini me, and SG 1 to the infirmary with Caldwell they can be Carson's first patients." Ordered John warning him a nod of thanks from Evan then turning to address the rest of the crew "Everyone please return to the ship teams will be out to escort you to the infirmary in groups of six once you are cleared you will be moved to a sealed room until the entire crew has been cleared, then we will address you all and bring you up to date." With that john turned and headed for the chair room he needed to speak with Atlantis and Avalon about the battle yesterday.

** X**

It took four hours to check the whole crew but nothing else suspicious was found and after speaking with Avalon and Atlantis John had set the ACLs to re stocking their Drone stores to their previous levels and sent teams to both MDFs to replenish their raw material stores. Carson had called and told him that Caldwell was awake and able to be questioned.

When questioning Caldwell it was discovered that the Goa'uld was working with the IOA in exchange for their protection. His mission when he reached the city was to find a way to destroy the city and all of its inhabitants along with the Daedalus and its crew. He was supposed to use the ZPM to escape back to SGC with a story of a new threat that coupled with the loss of the city, the Daedalus, and all personnel would have been enough for the IOA to discourage any future attempts to reach Pegasus. The Goa'uld would have told a harrowing tale how the city had fallen and how they had used the last of their power to send him back to Earth so that they would be warned of this new enemy giving them time to prepare and an excuse to build more weapons and ships to fight with this supposed threat with.

The questioning was broadcast to the entire city so that the Daedalus crew could see what the IOA was really about. Then the Lanteans had a meeting with all who had come on the Daedalus giving them all the information that they had gathered about the IOA and their corrupt and illegal dealings further proving that to the IOA anyone was expendable. Forcing them all to reevaluate their own allegiances because how can men and women be asked to risk their lives protecting an institution that will throw them away whenever it is convenient.

While many in the room were digesting the depth of this betrayal Jonathan spoke up from his position next to Cameron. "What does that mean for those of us who were brought here to join you as members of the expedition?"

"If you are accepted by Atlantis and Avalon you will be allowed to stay and be offered the gift so that you can join us as Lanteans." Replied John then continued "That offer is open to all of you. We wish to continue to deceive Earth for as long as possible, to do so we will need your cooperation. There is a plan in the works that would protect our families and us all to a certain degree. I want all of you to know that if you choose to aid us you can always find shelter here should you ever need it. At some point our true allegiances will become known and when they do it is important for all of you to know that we will view the Earth as a potential ally noting more nothing less."

Turning to Jack and his group John spoke again "It has been decided that SG 1 will be given the gift should they choose to accept it. Avalon believes that it will even remove your dependence upon the Goa'uld for Tretinoin, Teal'c she said that given enough time we could help to free the Jaffa from the Goa'uld completely." Turning to Sam he continued "Due to the naquadah in your blood stream Avalon believes that you will be able to operate all Goa'uld technology with ease. Do you wish to accept the gift that is offered?" Their reply was unanimous "Yes"

Over the next two months everyone who was on the Daedalus accepted the gift. Jack, Sam, and Daniel spent two weeks in one of the bonding room reestablishing their bond and due to the stronger bond all three members looked no older than thirty. Daniel had received the rare ability of Photokinesis the ability to control light, it had been seen only once before and it was this ability that led the Ancients to building their cloaking technology when it was discovered that the man could bend light around him to make himself invisible.

Evan, Cameron, and Jonathan had also bonded a month after their arrival another shock had come from Jonathan when he started exhibiting signs of Pyrokinesis. Both he and Daniel would have many hours of practice to control their abilities thankfully there were journals on the city's server written by the Ancients who had previously had the same ability so they had some help in learning to control their unique abilities.

** X**

During the monthly meeting after the arrival of Daedalus John revealed the information about the bonding rooms and the origin of the ZPMs.

"Leviathans are capable of holding insane an amount of energy due to the fact than much of their body is made up of naquadah. They actually have no need for the ZPMs if they are properly cared for, the bonding room originally had only two functions bonding and storage. Storage fed the energy produced directly into the city which was then routed to wherever it was needed while ZPM hold massive amounts of energy Leviathans are capable of storing hundreds or thousands of ZPMs worth of energy depending upon size. That massive amount of storage capacity is the reason that this city's shield has never failed. ZPMs were created when the Ancients wanted to power their outposts and other non Leviathan constructs with the same type of energy that the Leviathans used so the bonding rooms were given two more functions building ZPMs and recharging them. The reason that the city was starving when we arrived in the city is because the Ancients had abandoned the A/B/O bonds when they began pursuing Ascension and in doing so they were forced to rely solely on the ZPMs that were in storage since they were no longer able to produce the energy needed to build or charge ZPMs. Eventually even the massive stores that had been built up over the years within the city were depleted leaving only the three ZPMs as a source of energy. So on that note when using the bonding rooms after your bond has settled set the controls to channel the energy into the city. We will be sending all of the energy into the city reservoir until Atlantis and Avalon tell us otherwise." Explained John

"We have also worked out a cover story for why the IOA plan did not work. It will go that once reaching the city Caldwell beamed down with SG 1 to meet with us and assess the situation. When he arrived in the city the internal sensors went crazy and locked him into a containment field, he was then stunned and taken to the infirmary where the Goa'uld was found and removed. The reason that it has taken so long for the Daedalus to return to Earth is that Carson would not allow him to leave the infirmary until he was healed and fully recovered from his time housing the parasite. As for why we did not dial Earth you will tell them that we were attacked and the ZPM was depleted maintaining the shield which will lead them to believe that we are weak and vulnerable, and also give us the excuse of not contacting them regularly. As for the new younger look of SG 1 I sent a subspace communication to the Asgard they will meet you at these coordinates. The cover story is that during the battle that depleted our ZPM they were in the city and injured in an explosion that would have forced to retire due to their injures. Thankfully once you returned to the Milky Way you were met by Thor and he used Asgard cloning technology to give you healthy bodies as thanks for all of the times you have helped them. The reason that he met you there is that when he went to Earth to check up on Jonathan he was not there so Thor tracked you down to find out where Jonathan was. Your reply will be that the president has ordered you not to speak of the matter or you will be put on trial for treason. That will give Thor the opening to force them into revealing where Jonathan is since Thor takes his responsibility to his health so seriously. Once Thor knows the truth we can establish a new alliance with the Asgard. Avalon and Atlantis are both rather fond of them and are disturbed by the knowledge of their cellular problems they also wish to thank them for working so hard in fighting the Replicators since that is another mess that was created because of an Ancient who left their technology laying around."

When John finished he gave them all time to digest the information and for the Daedalus crew time to memorize the cover story since they would be leaving in the morning and heading back to Earth. The Lanteans would be resuming their exploration of the Pegasus Galaxy within the next few days now that the threat of the Wraith was temporarily diminished, and the city's power reservoirs were steadily building there were currently only five trios among the Lanteans and they had contributed considerably.

** X**

**Hope you liked. I should have the next chapter out in the next few days.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

A week after the Daedalus left for Earth Aiden dialed in and requested permission to bring an alien to the city. Now that the city had three ZPMs as backup and a few dozen worth of ZPMs in the reservoir they had altered their standard operating protocols, teams were now allowed to bring aliens to the city if they received permission first. The alien would then be held in quarantine until they underwent a full medical scan for any hidden threats. The moment the alien stepped through the gate he was ushered to the side where a containment field was activated, John could feel the anxiety pouring off of him but the man cooperated with their requests. Aiden approached him while Teyla stayed and spoke with the alien. "His name is Ronon Dex from the planet of Sateda his planet was culled to extinction several years ago. He was one of the soldiers fighting the Wraith when he was picked up by a Dart; the next time he woke up he was face to face with a Wraith who attempted to feed on him. Attempted being the most important part, when the Wraith discovered they were unable to feed upon him they surgically implanted him with a tracking device then turned him loose. To them it is some kind of sick game, but he decided to become the hunter and started killing those who hunted him according to him he has killed several hundred Wraith over the last seven years. A few month ago he heard of a new group in the Pegasus galaxy who where more advanced than anyone else he had ever encountered the Naboo. So he started looking for us in the hopes that we could remove the tracker and in exchange he would help us in any way he could."

John turned to Radek at the computer "Radek lock onto the signal and jam it we don't need the Wraith coming back here any time soon." Then he turned and approached Ronon, when he looked up and their eyes met it was like being punched in the gut. The pull to this man was a hundred times stronger than he had felt with Rodney, he had known it would be stronger since receiving the gift but he had not expected it to be this strong. Turning he could tell that Rodney was in the same condition and when he returned his attention to Ronon he could tell the man could feel the pull as well.

Walking up to the containment field "I promise you that if you cooperate no harm will come to you while you are here. I need you to surrender all of your weapons, and then you will be taken to the infirmary where you will be put through a battery of tests before our doctor operates on you to remove that tracker. There will be an armed escort at all times simply because you are an unknown and we wish to keep everyone as safe as possible. You don't need to worry about the Wraith finding you here because even if they did we can destroy them and the shield of this city will protect us. Is everything I have said so far acceptable?" Receiving a nod in reply John continued.

"I need to ask you did your people have the Alpha, Beta, and Omega dynamic?" after receiving another nod

"Are you an Alpha?" another nod

"Do you currently feel the pull, or have the urge to mate with me?" this time he received a gruff "Yes"

With a smile John said "Good I feel the same about you" shocking several of those around him "Due to that fact I will not be in charge of the details surrounding your current situation. Evan Lorne is my second in command and will be taking charge of you. Please cooperate with him and do as he and Carson the doctor ask they only wish to help you." John finished and Evan stepped forward as the shield dropped Ronon began to remove his weapons putting them into the box that was provided. Pausing for a moment he addressed John "I will get them back right some of them were given as gifts and are all that I have left of my home." The immediate reply was "We are simply going to scan them for more tracking devices in case the Wraith put more than one on you. Once you are out of surgery and cleared of any external influences we can revisit this, but I can tell you that they will be kept safe and will most likely be returned." Knowing that was the best he was going to get Ronon conceded and continued handing his weapons over.

After Ronon was escorted from the room John turned to Rodney "I want you to scour the Ancient Database for any and all information on Sateda since his people identify as A/B/O they must be descendants of or related to the Ancients. So there may be some mention of it. Once he is out of surgery get the address of his home world if you don't find it first because as soon as he is cleared to join us we are taking a trip to Sateda. So he can say goodbye and we may even be able to find some survivors so that he is no longer alone. It would be especially valuable if more of his people were immune to the feeding process. Speaking of immunity to the feeding process how are the doctors of Hoff coming along in their efforts, if Ronon is willing we could compare his DNA to the sample we got from Hoff and see if there are any similarities or if his DNA would be able to aid us all in our efforts to synthesize an immunity."

** X**

The next morning the senior staff converges in the conference room to discuss Ronon who will be joining them later. Carson explains that the blood work from Ronon is amazing, and confirms that he is and Alpha or a super Alpha as Carson puts it. "It is like he is currently bonded; his healing factor is better than any of the bonded trios that I have examined so far. His strength, reflexes and endurance are off the chart I would put his abilities on par with a Wraith and there is no telling what e will be capable of when he bonds." Turning to John and Rodney "He asked about both of you several times I gave him a bit of information, but convinced him that it was better to learn about his mates from his mates than a third party he is very eager to get to know you. I can also confirm that he is immune to the feeding process I combined some of his blood with a bit of the Wraith enzyme that I had in storage. His blood literally attacked the enzyme I am not sure what would happen if his blood made it into a Wraith's blood stream. What I can tell you is that it is not a natural immunity it was engineered to be a part of his DNA I would conclude that the Ancients at some point used his home world as a testing ground for creating immunity to the Wraith."

With a nod John asked "Is there any other conversation that should take place without his presence." When everyone gave a negative reply John called to the team outside and told them to let Ronon in. When he came into the room he searched for John and Rodney and headed right for them taking a seat between them garnering smiles from the room occupants. As he sat down John and Rodney could see that he was on edge so they both placed a hand on his thigh in an attempt to calm him. The effect was instantaneous you could actually see him calming.

Evan began this time "We scanned all the weapons after escorting Ronon to the infirmary yesterday. There was in fact three separate items with trackers on them. Your gun actually had two trackers on it as well I am sorry to inform you that in order to disable them we had to disassemble it, but the entire process is recorded and we took multiple scans before starting. It we are unable to reassemble the weapon then the scientists are confident that we can build another from scratch. The other weapons all had their tracking devices removed and are perfectly fine all of your weapons besides the gun are currently locked in the armory."

Rodney started this time "It took some work but I found the information you wanted. It appears that Sateda had an Ancient outpost and the occupants refused to leave when the Ancients fled back to Earth. I have the address and have scheduled for us to visit the planet in two weeks along with ten jumpers and SGAs 1-5 since we don't know what we will find."

As Rodney spoke John could feel Ronon tensing up and he could feel sadness rolling off of him. Squeezing Ronon's thigh John reached up and took his hand giving it a squeeze as well. As Ronon turned to look at him John spoke. "We don't know what we will find there, but we are going to scour the planet for survivors. We have what we call an Alpha site which is an off world base if there are any survivors and they wish to leave we will bring them to the Alpha site where we can protect them. I hope that over time we could learn to trust each other and perhaps we would be able to offer them a home here with us, but we don't know what has happened to them over the last several years and it would be dangerous to just bring them here without getting to know them first."

"Then why am I being given so much freedom?" asked Ronon

"Truthfully you are being monitored constantly by several systems, but the reason you are being given the chance is due to the strength of the pull that the three of us feel. Our records indicate that the stronger the pull the greater the compatibility between mates I am hoping that you would be more interested in bonding with us than trying to destroy us. Also your hatred of the Wraith tells me that it is almost impossible that you would be willing to help them to destroy us when we are one of the few groups capable of destroying the Wraith. If you are willing to submit to a full mental scan by the ship you could be cleared completely in a few hours of any doubt. Replied John

"I will submit to the scan I have spent enough of my life being watched I do not wish it to continue if it does not need to." Replied Ronon

Nodding John followed by Ronon and Rodney stood and walked out of the room straight to the chair. When they arrived John told Ronon "Sit in the chair and it will do all the work you just need to relax and let the scan happen it will not harm you." With a shaky nod Ronon walked to the chair and sat down. Once the chair reclined a bubble appeared around the chair like the first time John sat in the chair.

** X**

It took three days before Ronon was released from the chair. When the shield around the chair disengaged Ronon was smiling as he turned to John and said. "I to tell you that Atlantis has a new favorite. She said that I am one of the greatest warriors that she has ever had the pleasure of knowing. She even gave me the gift and a full briefing so I am up to date on current events. Atlantis and Avalon agree that if I am to be to the Keeper's Alpha then I need to know what is going on so that I can protect you when necessary." John smirked and said "Then perhaps we should get to know each other better to see if I wish to accept you as my Alpha."

Over the next 11 days John and Rodney grew very close to Ronon it was only a matter of time before they tool the next step and bonded. Today however they would be taking a trip to Sateda in order to discover fate of the former inhabitants and look for the Ancient outpost to figure out why they chose to remain instead of fleeing with the others. When they arrive however their scanners indicate that there are currently five Wraith Cruisers in orbit. So all of the Jumpers immediately cloaked then began their search for survivors. It took four hours to scan the planet then the Jumpers met back at the rendezvous point to compare information. They found that there were 500 humans on the planet and all of them had the subcutaneous Wraith tracking device that was found in Ronon.

It was decided that the best way to help the people of Sateda they needed to destroy the Cruisers so five Jumpers went into orbit each launching a SBD destroying the Cruisers within seconds. Then they returned to the planet and went broke up into three groups one to each of the three settlements to explain their plan to the Satedan people. They explained that they could remove the trackers and move them to a planet that was currently uninhabited where they would be protected. When the leader of the village where John was asked why they cared his response was simple. "We have always cared but there are too few of us to police the entire galaxy, we are just getting to the point where we are capable to offer aid to others. We would have come to help you sooner, but we did not know what the Wraith were doing to your people. The first time that we even heard of the runners was two weeks ago when Ronon Dex came to us and requested aid. We removed his tracker and then scheduled our trip here not knowing what we would find when we arrived."

"That may explain why you came here, but it does not explain why you have accepted him into your ranks so easily. Will you be accepting us into your ranks so easily as well?" asked the skeptical village leader

With a sigh John replied "He was not accepted as easily as you might believe the moment he stepped through the gate he was under constant surveillance, had an armed escort everywhere he went, then had to undergo a battery of medical tests before his surgery to remove the tracker, and finally he willingly submitted to a full mental scan before he was allowed to join our ranks."

Looks of shock covered most of the inhabitants of the village, and the leader asked. "Why would he be willing to submit to such invasive processes? What is it that you have to offer that would make anyone do that?"

With a smile John replied "I can't say for certain but I believe that he was willing to go through all of the because he is an Alpha who had found potential mates among out people and wanted as few barriers as possible." His response drew shocked gasps from all of the villagers after which he was overwhelmed with the feelings of home rolling off of them, but he did not understand why.

"He found mates among your people?" The leader exclaimed "You mean that your people have the A/B/O dynamic?"

Not understanding the significance of his answer John replied "Yes" then looked to Ronon for an explanation.

"Throughout the history of our people we have never come across another race that identifies and A/B/O, and with the loss of so much of our population it is likely that these people like me believed that they would never find their mates. When I was a runner of all the planets that I traveled to I never found any other civilization with the A/B/O dynamic. There may be some out there, however if they exist there are very few of them. I did not say anything because I believed that all of my people were gone so did not think it relevant."

Turning his attention back to the leader John asked "Are all of you people currently on the planet or are there others elsewhere?"

The leader responded "The Wraith periodically take a few of our citizens and turn them into runners none have ever returned so we are unsure if any are still alive."

Thinking over the information he just received John turned to Rodney "Is it possible to track all of the runners throughout the galaxy."

Muttering to himself Rodney pulled out his tablet without replying. With a smile John's attention was drawn by the village leader. "If our people were give the same opportunity to find mates among your people most if not all of us would be willing to submit to the same procedures that Ronon underwent."

Nodding to himself John stated "There are 500 of you currently living on this planet. Even if all of you did submit to the same procedures as Ronon it will take time to go through your entire population. Since only two people can be scanned at a time and each person takes a different amount of time, Ronon's scan took three days. We can give you all the tests that Ronon underwent as well as the surgery to remove the trackers immediately that should only take a week or two. The mental scans however will take time to get through. I think that the most important issue now it that we need to get your people off this planet before the Wraith return."

Even with the assistance of all 24 Jumpers it took the Lanteans three days to ferry all of the Satedans to the Alpha site where a signal jammer had been set up to prevent the Wraith from finding them. The Satedans agreed to go from youngest to oldest order to undergo the tests and have the trackers removed. During that time John, Rodney, and Ronon had used the Ancient records and found the outpost they were looking for inside they confirmed their suspicions that the Satedans immunity to the Wraith feeding process was engineered by the Ancients. They also discovered a recharge station and a number of personal shield devices. The recharge station could be used to charge anything that stored energy to be used later from walkie talkies to energy weapons. The personal shield devices were the more interesting find because unlike the prototypes that had been found on Atlantis these were a finished product that could be used and then recharged at the recharging station.

They gathered all of the technology up and loaded it into the Jumper; Rodney also hooked his tablet up to the outpost's mainframe and copied all the files. When they were done John activated the automated defense system that cloaked the outpost, and if it was breached a subspace signal would be sent to the city to alert them to the danger.

Once they returned to the city the new files were uploaded into the mainframe and so they could make more personal shields and recharging stations. The scientists were most interested in the immunity though and many hours were spent studying the information so that they could replicate the effects for the Lanteans, and perhaps find a way to spread it throughout the galaxy.

** X**

A few days after the events on Sateda occurred John, Rodney, and Ronon finally bonded they were in the bonding rooms for almost two weeks. When came out they went to the infirmary for the standard post bonding checkups. It was due to these tests that they discovered both Ronon and Rodney's response to Ancient technology now rivaled Johns'. John and Rodney gained enhanced senses, reflexes, strength, healing, and endurance similar to Ronons'. Finally John and Ronon gained enhanced intelligence. They had found that when trios bond in the rooms the greatest attributes of each member causes the corresponding in the other two members to increase. Something that always happened, but when bonding outside of the rooms the increases were minimal compared to when trios bond in the rooms. John and Rodney also found that Ronon was a very tactile person most likely sue to his years of solitude while on the run, he would take advantage of every opportunity he could to initiate physical contact.

Ronon has also settled into the city using his experience as a runner to take over the physical training of all military personnel and teach them how to fight the Wraith if they are unarmed so they can survive the encounter.

**XX**

After finding one Ancient outpost Rodney became obsessed with finding more which led them to Taranis. What surprised them though was when they found the facility occupied by a group of humans who found the facility about a hundred years ago and began advance their culture due to the technology left behind. They are limited though because none of them have the Ancient gene, after a tour of the facility Aiden was amazed when they found a hanger with a damaged Ancient warship. He immediately dialed back to the city and informed them of the discovery. An hour later John, Rodney, Ronon, and Elizabeth arrived with an escort to negotiate with the Taranians. They were surprisingly cooperative as long as the Lanteans could guarantee their continued protection since they realized that the Lanteans could use all of the technology within the facility. So Taranis was established as the new Alpha site. The Stargate was moved into the facility and given an Iris for increased security, and a few scientists came from the city to study and monitor the super volcano that powered the facility.

Scans indicated that the ship was capable of functioning, but it would need to undergo substantial repairs before it was battle ready right now though the main focus was assessing the condition of the Leviathans. Which is why John and Ronon were currently attempting to reach them telepathically but were having little success, Rodney was searching the ships logs in an attempt to find out why. The answer was that the Ancients were forced to leave the Orion behind because they had no way to power it since the ZPMs they were using were depleted in the battle that caused the damage. They had used the last of their power getting back to Taranis, when they landed the Orion was forced into a deep hibernation by the captain in an attempt to protect the Leviathans until they could return with a ZPM.

Not knowing what to do the trio returned to the city to speak with Atlantis and Avalon.

_Atlantis, Avalon we have found a ship named Orion in an Ancient outpost on Taranis. The Leviathans were forced into a deep hibernation by the captain because there was no energy to sustain them. I don't know if they could have survived this long. What should we do?_

_If they were put into deep hibernation it is likely that they still live.- Avalon_

_You will need to take ores and minerals to them like you did for us in the beginning.- Atlantis _

_The hardest part will be getting them to wake up they will need a large supply of power to do so. - Avalon _

_It will take a few weeks of using their bonding rooms to provide them with enough energy because when they wake they will be ravenous.- Atlantis_

_No Leviathan has ever been put into deep hibernation under those conditions or for that long.-Avalon_

_OK thank you we will begin working on your instructions and will keep you up to date on our progress.-John_

John relayed the instructions to the other two and then issued orders for a few teams to gather the necessary materials to take back to the Orion. He also called three other bonded trios to join them on their return and begin the process of filling Orion's reservoirs.

John also received a communication from Jack telling him that their cover story worked and the president and the IOA were currently on the receiving end of Thor's temper. If things continued as they were the Daedalus along with several Asgard vessels would be leaving for the city within the next few weeks. He also told John that due to his restored youth he was once again leading SG 1 and that they had recently gained a new member whose main skill seemed to causing trouble. Her name was Vala she also happened to be an Omega that was currently dating Teal'c. Also since he was once again leading SG 1 the SGC had gotten a new commander a Richard Woolsey, and Jack was requesting all information that they had on the man needing to know if he was as corrupt as the rest of the IOA. So John sent him all the recodes they had on Woolsey, with a note that while the man was anal about the rule book, it seemed that he was clean.

Over the last month the Orion's reservoirs had been slowly building and now were at a level that they could bring Orin and Ion out of hibernation, John had also gotten a message from jack and the Daedalus along with the Asgard would be arriving within the next week or two. John, Rodney, and Ronon were in their respective chairs aboard the Orion initiating the awakening process, which was basically the three of them merging their minds into a single entity and forcing the slumbering Leviathans awake. After several hours of work they were finally successful, they knew the moment that it happened because the Leviathan duo retaliated against their forceful awakening momentarily before realizing that there was ample ores, minerals, and energy for them to heal their wounds and sate their hunger. The trio separated from their mental unity and returned to conciseness coming face to face with a group of concerned faces, they learned that they had been working at their task for over 8 hours.

Three days later the trio returned to the Orion to speak with the newly awakened Leviathans the moment they entered the ship they were greeted.

_Welcome. Thank you for waking us.–Both_

_You are welcome Ion and Orin. Have you contacted Atlantis and Avalon yet?—John_

_No we were forbidden from contacting our mothers by the Aleteran council shortly after the war started.—Both_

Hearing the immense sadness in their voices and feeling it emanating from the ship John asked.

_Why? Was there some security risk that we are unaware of?_

_No. The Alterans were very restrictive and did not like anything that was outside of their control.—Both_ The answer was conveyed with such bitterness John was glad that there were no Alterans still around because he feared that they would not be for much longer.

_Well I am the current keeper of Atlantis and Avalon and give you full permission to converse with your mothers whenever you desire so long as it does not endanger you or your crew.—John_

The two Leviathans abruptly ended their discussion and every Lantean empath was nearly brought to their knees by the flood of emotions that were pouring from the ship. They were overwhelmed by happiness of two children finally able to speak with their parents for the first time in thousands of years. After a few hours John, Rodney, and Ronon sat in the control chairs to bring all of the systems online and take the ship back to the city where they could finish all necessary repairs and complete some upgrades.

Flying from a control chair was a whole new experience for all of them and with the three of them working in sync it was practically effortless. They were in no hurry and did not push the engines so the hyperspace journey to the city took two days. The city had been busy remodeling three of their piers they now had a flat top surface where starships could land. One of the three was a ship factory where ships could be repaired and would one day be built. Below the ship construction facility were massive warehouses that held the raw materials for building and repairing the ships. Beneath the other two landing pads were also warehouses that could be used to store whatever they needed or wanted to. After landing the Orion in the ship construction facility and getting the repairs underway the crew disembarked to resume their duties in the city.

It had taken only a week to fully repair the Orion and install the upgrades, the Orion now had two energy lasers similar to the Ancient weapons platform, but the beams were smaller and more concentrated so they were not as large as the original platform. The drone bays had been fully stocked with a mixture of all three Drone types, the ship outfitted with 24 rail guns each equipped with a supply of 10,000 shells, and finally the ship also received a cloaking device.

** X**

The long range scanners indicated that the Daedalus along with six unidentified ships were approaching the city and would arrive in three hours. The Daedalus and the other ships exited hyperspace just outside the planet's atmosphere, one of the unknown ships turned out to be the Tria a Leviathan warship very similar to the Orion. Tria was given clearance by Atlantis and Avalon to land in the Ship construction facility since it needed its hyperdrive repaired and would be receiving the same upgrades as the Orion. The Daedalus and two of the Asgard ships requested and received clearance to land on the remaining pier. The Lanteans were shocked by the return of Tria and curious as to where it had been and how it had been found.

As they were waiting for the remaining ships to land there was a flash in the gate room. When John looked he saw a few Asgard and several humans the only one he recognized was Caldwell of humans. Moving forward to greet the visitors he saw the woman in an odd uniform step forward and when she stopped a console rose from the floor and she placed her hand on it a look of shock on her face when nothing happened.

"If you were expecting to take control of the city you are wasting your time all of the old passwords and override commands were wiped from the system months ago." Spoke John

With narrowed eyes the woman angrily asked "Who are you to do that and what right do you have to do so?"

With a smirk John replied "It is unfortunate that a member of the supposed greatest race is so lacking in manners and believes that they can simply walk in here after abandoning this city 10,000 years ago and take control of what is not theirs."

Then John turned completely dismissing the woman and spoke to the Asgard. "It is an honor to have you here my name is John Sheppard Keeper of the city may I have the privilege of knowing who I am speaking to?"

Nodding as if John had passed some unknown test the Asgard replied. "I am Thor supreme commander of the Asgard it is good to meet you John Sheppard Keeper. I am here to check on Jonathan O'Neill. I went to Earth to give him his six month check up and he was not there he has an annoying habit of not being where I leave him. Then when I asked where he was they though to give me the runaround as if I have not been dealing with politicians for thousands of years. Ha!"

"Well I can assure you that Jonathan is fine in fact he is now bonded with an Alpha and Beta and is quite active he is currently a member of SGA 2 and his beta is the lead. Our doctors have also been monitoring him to watch for any problems that could arise. We have also been studying the information that the Asgard sent to the SGC about your genetic degradation issues they would very much like to speak with your scientists about the issue. They believe they have found a few possible solutions for you, however if their ideas don't work out I have a solution that I would only use as a last resort." Spoke John

Turning to the Colonel "Captain Caldwell it is good to have you back in the city I hope that you did not pick up any parasites along the way they are nasty things to get rid of." His reply was a snort and subtly glance at the three standing next to him.

Following Caldwell's glance John saw a woman and two men. "Welcome to the city" was as far as he got before he was cut off gaining scowls from the Lantean people. "We are with the IOA I am Henry Long, this is Ryan Peters, and that is Anthony White we are here to assess the personnel of this city and determine if you will be allowed to remain here or not and if you do who will be in charge."

"What are you talking about remain here?" interrupted John getting a scowl form Long

"It is very expensive keeping all of the personnel here and the equipment that you are provided with is not cheap. You will justify your continued presence here or you will be recalled. Here is a Presidential order giving us full command of the city as of now all activity will have to be approved by one of us or it does not happen. Also all aliens will be confined to quarters until we decide if they can remain in the city or not. Now you can have some of those solders show us to the VIP quarters and while they are at they can carry our luggage." Long

The longer Long spoke the more hatred was rolling off the Lanteans and the more malicious John's smile became. Elizabeth thought he was doing an amazing job personally she would have slapped due to the drivel that was pouring out of him. She also shuddered at all the hatred being directed at the man especially when he started speaking about how to treat aliens.

John just turned to Lorne "Evan escort our three guests down to the rooms across form Steve's." The smiles he received in response to that order would have been truly terrifying had the three idiots known who Steve was. Once they were out of sight John threw the order up into the air and it was burned to a crisp in seconds.

Returning his attention to the annoying woman "Your people abandoned this galaxy to the Wraith which you are responsible for creating and you never had any intention of returning so don't even try that lie on me. This city was stripped of anything useful; all you left was what was too dangerous to take with you back to Earth. The Alterans abandoned this city and any and all claims they had to it. We are the current citizens and all who reside here do so because we allow it with the permission of Atlantis and Avalon so if your people wish to reside within the city feel free to ask for sanctuary. However you are not and will not be in command or control. So what say you Alteran?"

Garnering a scowl from the woman she raised her arm and sent John flying to her astonishment John just hovered in mid air and several of the Lanteans were completely focused on her prepared to retaliate. What happened next shocked her even more.

_Stop. Do not attack. She is not capable of harming me and should she try that again she will find that attacking a Keeper within the city walls is a terrible idea. Can't you all feel it Atlantis and Avalon are trembling with rage. If she attacks me again Atlantis will kill her._

John finished his orders just as Ronon and Rodney lowered him to the ground, Ronon never taking his eyes off the Alteran delegation, prepared to kill anyone who dared to attack his family.

** X**

**Well I think that is as good a place as any to end the chapter so hope you enjoyed. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**X X X**

The visitors were all staring at John is shock and the Lanteans were all prepared to retaliate. The room's temperature had also risen substantially and the area around Jonathan was vacant he seemed to be almost as angry with the attack as Ronon. Since coming to the city he had grown very close to John and viewed him as an older brother, seeing him attacked right in front of him was seriously pissing him off.

Focusing his attention on the Alteran woman "You will be escorted to the meeting hall where we will meet with your entire crew. They will all be given the choice to remain here or find a home elsewhere; however should any of you attempt a repeat of what just happened you will be killed on the spot. Am in understood?" His reply was a nod and the Alteran delegation was escorted to the meeting hall so they could join the rest of their people who were being beamed in.

"If we could all meet in the meeting hall there are seats and it would be better to discuss some of these issues with everyone present so that it does not have to be covered multiple times."

Once everyone had gathered in the meeting hall John took center stage and began the discussion with the Asgard.

"Thor I would like to make it clear that we would like to form an alliance between the Asgard and Lantean people. We are not the Alteran people so we will not be bound by the agreements that they made though we may accept some of the terms that exist in your alliance with them. I realize that the Alterans have often been unhelpful when it comes to the problems of other races that they viewed as lesser. We are going to help you with your genetic issues regardless of any alliances because you took responsibility for fighting the replicators. The replicators are Alteran technology and from what we have been able to figure out from the SGC files is that a man found an abandoned lab on his planet and used it to build a robot body. Then he transferred his dying daughter's conciseness into it to save her life, the replicators were created when she became bored and used files in the lab to create toys those toys were the replicators. The reason that they became so dangerous is because she found all of the safety protocols boring so she stripped them out leaving only the command to replicate. So it is the fault of irresponsible Alterans that your people were almost driven to extinction, so our way of repaying you is that we are going to save your people."

"I thank you for the offer but you cannot guarantee that what you have will work." Replied Thor

"Thor I guarantee that the Asgard race will survive their genetic issues. Even if the ideas our scientists are unsuccessful I told you before that there is a way, but I will only use it if there exists no other way." Assured John

One of the Alterans spoke up "The only way you could guarantee that is if you had a way of going back in time and preventing the damage from ever happening." When the only reply the Alteran received was a smile the entire room stared at John in shock.

"Going back in time and preventing the damage would not help the Asgard that are already suffering the effects because if you change history you create an alternate reality one where the Asgard are not suffering and one where they are. However a person could go back in time and gather fresh genetic samples from the Asgard population then bring them back to the future so that the Asgard would have new genetic material to create clones with. Of course the Asgard would eventually have the same problem eventually, but it would solve their current issues." Replied John

"Time travel is forbidden laws were written strictly prohibiting the construction and use of such technology the breaking of those laws is an immediate death penalty." Spoke the annoying Alteran woman angrily

"Well then it is a good thing that the Lanteans are not bound by Alteran laws, and by the way if you are going to continue being rude the least you could do is give me your name so I have something to refer to you as other than annoying Alteran woman. Also considering that no one has ever found any Alteran law books it would be really hard to follow them if I ever had any intention of doing so." Replied John

A young Alteran stood up and walked up the the stage and handed John an Alteran version of a tablet "My name Athos and here is the most up to date version of the laws my people followed."

"Thank you Athos it is good to see that some of your people have manners, from what I have gathered of the Annoying Alteran Woman I was beginning to think you all uncivilized." Replied John

"Her name is Helia she is the captain of the Tria" "Was" inserted John

"I am sorry what?" asked Athos

"She was the captain of the Tria. The Tria and all Leviathan vessels have made their wishes clear that they will never again accept the Alteran people as their crews, unless the Alterans end their foolish pursuit of Ascension and return to the ways of the A/B/O bonds." Replied John

"The what?" Asked all of the Alterans causing the Lanteans and even the Asgard to look at them strangely.

"You mean that you do not know of the significance of the Alpha, Beta, and Omega bonds that your people once cherished, the bonds that allowed you people to reach their peak with the aid of the Leviathans." Spoke a shocked Thor and then scowled as they all replied negative.

"The oldest of us is Helia and she is only 500 years old I only passed 100 shortly before we began our trip to Earth. When we were growing up the main focus of our education was how to ascend. What are these bonds you speak of and what is their importance." Asked a curious Athos

Before anyone could begin explaining the bonds and their importance to the poorly educated Alterans John spoke up. "The information on bonds is currently on the city's server you can use your tablets to access the information and educate yourselves. After you have done that then we will revisit this conversation and proceed from there. While you are reading that information we will review the Alteran laws and decide if any of them can be useful to us."

Then John addressed Thor "Thor would you consent to having Rodney look at the schematics for the shields and weapons on your ships to determine if they are capable of fighting against Wraith vessels. I will also make available to you all of the information we have on the Wraith so that you are as prepared as possible." After a minute of contemplation Thor agreed seeing the necessity of knowing how they matched up against the Wraith vessels.

"Keeper John Sheppard I am curious as to how you plan to accomplish these things while still under the command of your superiors on Earth. You did not speak out against the IOA representatives and even had your men put them into rooms that seemed to please your people." Questioned Thor

With a smile John spoke "Avalon would you bring up the footage of our honored guests so that we can all see how they are doing in Steve's company." When the images from the holding cells appeared there were gasps from all but the Lanteans. There was a room with several holding cells the one in the center held Steve and three others were home to the IOA inspectors. Some of the Alterans had jumped to their feet demanding to know why there was a Wraith in the city.

"He is here because he is our prisoner and we needed to know as much about our enemy as possible so we could kill them. It is simple logic the better you know your enemy the more prepared you are to fight them" Replied John

** X**

It had been a week since the arrival of the Daedalus and their guests. Rodney had deemed the Asgard vessels could easily go one on one with a Wraith Hive and could fight off two if it had to but if their numbers were any greater they would lose. The Alterans had also been given the complete files of their people and discovered that there were many secrets hidden from them by the older Alterans. They were shocked to discover that their people were responsible for the birth of the Wraith. They were also given files on the Alterans that had ascended, the files on Anubis really upset many of them and they began to realize that it was time for a change. John, Elizabeth, and Rodney had reviewed the Alteran law books and each of them had crossed out dozens of laws or marked laws for consideration as a basis for laws of their own. Then the three of them combined their lists and compared what the others had crossed out or marked for consideration. It was a long process but they were making progress. The Asgard were working with the Lantean scientist and from what he heard they were making progress, but John was still prepared to follow through with his promise if necessary. As for the IOA inspectors they were still residents of the holding cells where they would remain for the duration of their stay.

John had also found that Ronon had been practicing his telekinesis and had become adept with it. The discovery had been made the night after he was attacked by Helia and he found himself floating in mid air on the receiving end of Ronon's enthusiastic attention he was just glad he had received Ronon's enhanced healing or he may not have been walking the next day. Though John had not been hurt or really in any danger seeing John fly through the air had affected Ronon after losing so many he needed to be reassured that John was not going anywhere and was safe.

** X**

All of the residents of the city were back in the meeting hall to return to the issues that were discussed in the previous meeting, but this time all of the guests were far better informed so they could understand why the Lanteans were making the decisions they were. As the meeting started Thor was the first to address an issue. Over the last week John and Thor had established a friendship which was aided by their mutual care for Jonathan.

"I am curious John how you will deal with the IOA and your decision to break from Earth's governments?"

"We have been working on a plan for some time since we are all concerned about the repercussions of our choices not only for us but also for our families. To that end we have modified our plans over time to include as we grew and learned. Our current plan is that when the Daedalus leaves we will keep the IOA members and then sent them back through the gate when the Daedalus is due to reach Earth. We are going to upload all of our resignations on onto the Daedalus' server though they will not find them. When we send the IOA members back we will be using the outpost in Antarctica to send a broadcast worldwide revealing the information about the Stargate. The broadcast will appear to have been done by the IOA in an attempt gain public support and seize control of the Stargate; however the day after we will be sending another broadcast this time making it look like a leak in various governments around the world showing everyone the truth about the IOA. We will take advantage of confusion having the Daedalus' computers programmed to send all of our resignations to the respective governments we serve stating that sue to the abandonment of the IOA and their actions against us and our families. Since they can't be trusted we can no longer serve them however due to the IOA revealing the Stargate information our resignations and the reasons will be releases allowing our families to know that we are alive and well. With the cooperation of the Alterans we will say that they offered to let us join them and we are now Lanteans. We will send a message to our former governments informing them that until they fix their problems we are not interested in any form of communication. That will place all of the blame for revealing the Stargate program, losing anything they hoped to gain from the city, and all personnel solely on the shoulders of the IOA." Explained John

"An interesting plan I am glad that the Stargate will no longer be kept such secret the gate was meant to be used by everyone not just the military." Replied an impressed Thor

"Keeper" Spoke Athos gaining the attention of the room when he stood "You said that if we wished to live here we could ask so we are asking." As he said this all of those who had been on the Tria stood and nodded their agreement with his words.

John nodded and spoke "Atlantis and Avalon consent to your presence here as long as you work to regain what your people abandoned and end your foolish pursuits of ascension. Ascension is something that one would look to when they are old and dying not young like you, you have easily 20,000 years of life in front of you don't throw it away. Look for your mates, build a family and live your life."

Nodding Athos spoke once again "There are many things about the ways that the Alteran council worked that many of us did not agree with, but we were young and thought their experience and wisdom gave them the right to lead us all. The Alteran council did not have anyone on it that was less than 20,000 years old and we see that they had all forgotten what it means to live and feel. They even separated me from my brother we were the only twins born in thousands of years and they separated us sending my brother on the Aurora for a long term scientific mission. We had always had a strong bond between us and the separation was painful for us but they did not care!"

At the moment Athos finished speaking a holographic image of a different woman appeared on each side of John. Truing to each of the women John nodded to them then asked. "What is the Aurora I have not seen any mention of it before."

"The Aurora is the only ship of her kind she is older than we are. She was the Alterans first attempt at merging the two types of Leviathans together, however her merger is complete she has only a single conciseness they took two different Leviathans and merged them into a single entity. They actually destroyed the two original Leviathans when they created her which is why she is the only one as none would consent to the procedure. She is primarily a science vessel as she leans more towards her pacifist heritage, but she is equipped with shields and weapons to defend herself if necessary. She is also the only Leviathan of her kind due to the fact that she has never reproduced." Answered Atlantis

"Wait, wait you said is. Not was does that mean she survived the war and is still out there?" asked John garnering a look of hope from Athos

"We are unsure. We did not reach out to her or any of our children because you had no way of reaching them until recently, and because of the communications ban that the Alteran council put on us." Spoke Avalon who then turned to look at Atlantis

"Yes she still exists but I cannot reach her, she is currently adrift in space and her power levels are dangerously low. What records I can access indicate that the crew put themselves into suspended animation when they head that the Alterans had fled expecting them to return to finish the war. According to long range scanners there are several cruisers in the vicinity of the Aurora and it is only a matter of time before they find her." Declared Atlantis

There was a mass of noise originating from the Alterans as two more holograms appeared this time a man and woman. John turned to address them "Orin, Ion I know that you are battle ready and realize you have not had long to recover but I would like to retrieve the ship as soon as possible and we need to reach her before the Wraith." Both nodded in assent

"Captain Caldwell how about one last voyage with the Daedalus before we send her back to Earth?" John received a nod from the captain as he departed for his ship. As John began to depart Thor spoke.

"John three of our ships are currently setting Idle would you perhaps like a few traveling companions?"

"Thank you for the offer Thor extra company is always welcome we will be departing within the hour." Replied John

Forty-five minutes later the Orion exited the planet's atmosphere followed by the Daedalus, then the five ships entered hyperspace together.

** X**

It took three days to arrive at their destination. When they moved alongside the Aurora their scanners indicated that the ship was in terrible shape, it appeared that the shield had failed long ago and the hull was riddled with holes from space debris. There was no way they could tow the ship back to the city in one piece. They also found a Wraith dart docked with the ship causing a great deal of alarm because if the Wraith were able to replicate the ships systems it would make them much harder to beat, and if they got a hold of the hyperdrive schematics they would no longer be confined to the Pegasus galaxy. Scanners also indicated that the ship's crew of 1,123 were all in stasis, there were also no other life signs so they would need to keep their guard up until they found the Wraith.

Exiting the chairs the trio donned the space suits that had been found on the Orion and had the Daedalus beam them over to the Aurora. Once inside they began searching for the Wraith; however they were shocked to discover that the Alteran's bodies all looked old and frail which did not make any sense. They were in stasis pods which slowed their aging significantly so there was no reason for all of the bodies to be so aged. They found the Wraith in a stasis pod that had contained the XO and now held a Wraith. At this point Rodney realized that the crew was actually in some type of virtual reality, but he did not understand why because the virtual reality was being powered by the crew's life force much like how a Wraith fed. So John chose to enter one of the pods and go into the Virtual reality to find out what was going on, the pod he entered was stopped from draining his life force and instead was hooked up to a naquadah generator. Being the vindictive person that he is Rodney also switched the Wraith's pod so that it was draining his life force as well.

**Inside the Virtual Reality**

When John opens his eyes he sees the Aurora in pristine condition and just as he turns around he sees a crew man one who looks exactly like Athos. "Are you Methos?"

The young man replies "Yes. Do I know you?"

"No. But I do know your twin brother Athos." Responded John getting a smile from Methos "Can you please take me to the bridge; I must speak with the captain immediately?"

Pulling out his stunner Methos replies "Yes, but since I do not know you, and you should not be here I must escort you. Please walk in front of me." As he indicates the direction for John to go

Once they reach the bridge John is surprised when he sees the XO alive and well when he knows that she is dead. Setting that aside for now John addressed the captain. "Greeting captain of the Aurora I am Keeper John Sheppard I need to speak with you in private immediately."

The XO was the one to reply first "Why should the captain waste his time speaking with you we need to modify the hyperdrive so we can get back to Atlantis."

Ignoring her completely John spoke again "Captain where can we speak privately it really cannot wait." Insisted John

The captain recognizing John's title rose from his seat and motioned John to a room down the hall. Once inside the captain introduced himself as Helios then John explained the entire situation from the Alterans fleeing Pegasus to them finding the Aurora and the shocking news about the Wraith taking the place of his XO. At first he was skeptical but when they returned to the bridge he could see that the XO was beginning to morph into its real form now looking really old. The XO continued to morph until it simply blinked out of existence when it did Helios addressed the crew and told them the state of their physical bodies explaining how their sacrifice would be remembered.

John broke in "What do you mean that your sacrifice will be remembered we are preparing to beam your stasis pods onto the Orion, and then we have to figure out a way to get the Aurora back to the city."

Helios replied "But you said that out bodies are old and frail what would be the point. No. we will set the ship to self-destruct and die with it."

"That is not your decision to make Helios if you wish to die then so be it but there are a couple options that we can use to repair the damage that was inflicted to your bodies. As for the ship it is Aurora's decision to make whether she wishes to die or not." As John finished speaking a woman broke from the group and stepped forward.

"I thank you for considering my opinion in the matter, but I have no wish to continue barley surviving and being enslaved by a race of uncaring fools. Also I am terribly damaged and would need to be completely rebuilt to be of any use."

"You would not be under the rule of the Alterans; my people are the current inhabitants of the city. We are the Lanteans and we are working hard to provide ample amounts of energy for the city, Orion, and recently the Tria. As for the damage to you I will have to talk to my people and see if they have any ideas about getting you back to the city, but the Ship Construction Facility is currently repairing and upgrading the Tria. Once Tria is completed you will take its place. Now I am going to leave here and speak with the others and see if they have any ideas, while I am doing that one of our ships will begin beaming your stasis pods to the Orion." John stated and blinked out

**On the outside**

John woke and sat up to see Ronon and Rodney standing guard on each side of his pod. Using his radio he filled everyone in on what had happened in the virtual reality, ordered the Daedalus to start beaming the pods onto the Orion, and asked for ideas on how to get Aurora back to the city. It was an engineer on the Daedalus that suggested that they strip the Aurora of all added technology and then have her reshape herself into a mass of pure Leviathan. Then they would expand one of the ships shields around her and transport her back to the city. The Thor offered the services of the Asgard vessels in shielding and transporting the Leviathan back to the city while the Orion and Daedalus guard. Having a solid plan John reentered the virtual reality and explained it to Aurora. She agreed to the plan but pointed out she was dangerously low on energy and would not be able to do what they wanted without energy. When asked how much she replied that a full ZPM would be ideal so he nodded and told her to give him a few minutes and he would provide her with one. She nodded and informed him it would take her a few days to expel all of the impurities a shift her form as they wished.

After exiting once again John had the Daedalus beam the ZPM that they had brought on the Orion over so Rodney could install it then they were beamed back to the Orion to wait. In the end it took a total of 84 hours to complete and when finished she was about the size of one of the Asgard ships. The three Asgard ships took positions around her one in front and one on each side then they combined their shields to cover all four vessels and activated their tractor beams to hold Aurora in place. They finished their preparations just in time too because as they were powering up their hyperdrives nine Wraith Cruisers exited hyperspace and began firing. Not wanting to tax the Asgard shields any more the Orion moved into an intercept course and returned fire destroying the Cruisers in less than a minute then turned entered hyperspace with the other ships.

It took five days to return to the city since they did not want to strain the Asgard vessels, or the Daedalus, and they were not in a hurry so they traveled at a leisurely pace. When they exited hyperspace the Asgard vessels entered the planet's atmosphere and slowly descended down to the city, lowered Aurora into the Ship Construction Facility (SFC), and then returned to a fixed orbit above the planet while the Orion and Daedalus descended to land. Aurora would be setting for some time until a new set of schematic were drawn up that she would accept and just resting after her years a drift.

Surprisingly during her journey back to the city she had grown to like the designs of the Asgard ships finding that they were many times more compatible with her than Alteran technology and after discussing it with Thor and receiving his permission she decided to take the shape of the Asgard ship O'Neill. She was equipped with the most advanced systems that the Asgard possessed the Asgard shared their beaming technology with the Lanteans showing their appreciation for them not fighting the Aurora joining them. It would take approximately three weeks for her to alter her shape, give her shape time to settle, and then install all of the machines and technology to turn her back into a ship. They also discovered that she was in fact capable of reproducing but never did because she hated the Alterans for how she was created and did not want to help them anymore than necessary. Her offspring would be just like her a third type of Leviathan, she was ecstatic when the Asgard technology was installed in her and she found that she was actually perfectly in tune with their technology.

The scientists had found a unique solution for the Asgard it was a combination of Asgard, Alteran, and Lantean DNA. The Asgard would make up 90% and the other two would each make up 5% of the Asgard's new genetic code they believed it would be enough to return their ability to sexually reproduce and solve the degradation issues. They also believed that it would shift their genetics enough that the Asgard would follow the Alpha, Beta, and Omega dynamic. The ACL was now constructing an Alteran version of a cloning device since it was more advanced than the Asgards' and would prevent any future degradation problems. The other thing that would help them was that Aurora had offered to create an Asgard version of the gift so they would not need to clone nearly as often.

** X**

Over the week and a half that had been spent retrieving the Aurora there had been a bit of activity in the city the seven missing Wraith had been found when they had gotten into the Alteran Ascension device and all of them had been affected by it, four of them had died unable to ascend but three of them had actually ascended only to be destroyed by the Alterans. The Alterans had then sent a representative to speak with Elizabeth, Radek, Evan, and Aiden about disassembling the device. Elizabeth had agreed and threw in that they would erase all evidence of the technology from all servers that they had and would do the same if they found any in the future if in exchange for a complete and up to date version of their knowledge repository with the Ascension technology removed of course. The representative told them she would have to speak with the others about her request and would return. The other three had been shocked but also saw why Elizabeth was the diplomatic lead for the expedition. They had received a positive response, however the knowledge could only be given to the Keeper and his mates the knowledge would be split between the three of them and they could tap into it when they used the chairs.

The second bit came when SGA 1 encountered a planet that was ruled by children and just before a person turned 25 they committed ritual suicide. The team discovered that over half of the planet was covered by an EMP field that originated from a ZPM powered Alteran device they used their scanners to document the devices schematics so they could replicate it. The team found much to their annoyance that the field affected even Alteran technology when the Jumper that was shadowing them lost power and crashed. Luckily they were close to the edge of the field so they only had to levitate the Jumper a couple hundred feet to get it outside of the field. They figured that the true point of the ritual sacrifice was to limit the planets population so that they would all fit under the field. Though they had issues with children committing suicide they knew that the best was to stop it was to destroy the Wraith.

A few days after the Aurora was returned it was time for the Asgard to return to earth they would tow the Daedalus back and leave in orbit above the SGC. They were capable of reaching Earth in just 5 days instead of the 18 it took the Daedalus so the Lanteans would be implementing their plan in five days. John was now in the gate room with several of the Asgard and the five cloning device that the Lanteans had built for them they would be gating straight to Orilla so that they could begin the process of cloning new bodies for all of the Asgard. It was really strange to have to look up in order to look the Asgard in eye since their new bodies averaged between six and seven feet. The scientists had also been correct the Asgard were now capable of sexual reproduction and were part of the A/B/O dynamic so they would be able to power the Leviathan ships once they started finding bond partners.

Thor estimated that it would take a few months to clone bodies for all of their people since most of their race was in stasis waiting for the others to find a solution to the genetic issue. Though he was unsure of how long it would take for them to accept their new nature and begin finding bonding partners. The Lanteans had provided them with all of the information that they possessed on the A/B/O dynamic to educate the Asgard and help them understand what they would soon happening with their bodies. John also told them that if any trios were ready to bond before the Aurora arrived on Orilla they could gate to the city and bond on Aurora while she was here. So after saying their goodbyes the Asgard departed through the gate just as the Asgard ships were leaving the atmosphere.

Five days later they dialed the SGC and John sent through his GDO, after receiving confirmation he and his mates each threw one of the IOA members through the gate while Peter and Radek released the information about the Stargate to every media station on Earth. The following day they sent the data about the IOA and their corrupt government partners. To say the least Earth's governments had more important things to deal with than the Lanteans for the next several months.

** X**

**That does it for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

** X**

**Two Months Later**

It had taken a bit of time but with the aid of the control chairs in the Tria and Orion all of the Satedan people had been fully integrated into the city's population. With their addition and the addition of the Daedalus' crew the Lanteans population rose to over 1,000 and when the Aurora's crew fully recovered their population had risen to over 2,000. The former crew of the Daedalus was now stationed on the Orion and Cameron was now the captain of the Tria both crews familiarizing themselves with the new systems. The best part influx of citizens into the city was that there were now over 100 bonded trios and almost triple that number of duos waiting to find their missing partner. The Aurora's crew had been hooked up to the city's energy reservoirs and using their ever growing reservoir of life energy Atlantis and Avalon were able to restore them all to full health.

One month after the Asgard had left the Stargate had activated and the Asgard signal came through. Doing a quick scan John figured that there were a several hundred Asgard present seeing Thor he walked forward and asked if there was a problem the reply he received shocked him. All of the Asgard present wished to bond it appeared that many of them had taken well to the A/B/O dynamic. Another thing that shocked John was that Omega Thor was bonding with beta Loki and Alpha Hemdall. John congratulated them but asked if they were all determined to bond aboard the Aurora or if they would be willing to bond in any of the available bonding rooms because the Aurora only held eight rooms and each trio would require a minimum of one week to complete the bonding process. The Asgard seeing the problem conceded that if they wish to bond anytime soon they will have to use whatever rooms are available so all 36 bonding rooms on all four vessels were occupied for a full month. After the initial wave it seemed that the other Asgard were taking their time to find mates and bond, it also seemed that thousands of years of celibacy made the Asgard quite randy because all those whose bonds had settled were now using the rooms constantly in fact the Aurora's reserves were almost ¾ full. The Asgard seemed to prefer using her rooms as much as possible, and now the Asgard were heading back to Orilla with the Aurora.

John, Rodney, and Ronon were also slowly adjusting to the Alteran repository that had been downloaded into their minds. Though they had not been happy about the strain it would put on them until the adjustments were complete they understood the value of the knowledge so put up with the headaches as their minds adjusted to the mass of information. It would take several months before they could access the information, and then the three of them had to work in sync to access any of the information. Since it was broken up into three separate pieces one in each of their minds, it was a protection that they accepted it prevented any one person from being able to do whatever they wanted with the knowledge.

The scientists had also finished creating a viable inoculation to the Wraith feeding process and had given the information to the people of Hoff who were now distributing it. There was a danger approximately one in one-hundred thousand would reject the inoculations and die from it. The last time they spoke to Hoff they had offered the inoculation to all of their allies and trading partners and were attempting to spread it out to other worlds. The Lanteans estimated that about 30% of Pegasus was now immune, and they were not sure how the Wraith would react when they finally awoke but they knew it would not be good.

The most disturbing event that occurred was that after Helia read all of the files concerning the Replicators she had come to John and the others telling them that the Alterans had actually created human form Replicators hoping to use them in the war against the Wraith. After she gave them the planet's coordinates they had taken the Orion and flown through the solar system cloaked to avoid any form of detection in the event that the Replicators still existed. What they found shocked and terrified many among the Lanteans the scanners indicated the planet was covered with Alteran style structures, and there was not a single life sign on the planet. Instead there were billions of human form Replicators, after the discovery they had high tailed it back home to share the disturbing news. After words they had contacted the Asgard to get the schematics for the Planetary Wide Anti Replicator Weapon (PWARW) so they could destroy them if necessary.

The last exciting thing that happened was that they had found the last Alteran ship known to have survived the Wraith and it was as of yesterday sitting in the SCF undergoing repairs and upgrades. John, Apollo, and Artemis had ignored the former name of the ship and decided to come up with their own so it was changed to the Eclipse.

Just as John prepared to sit down and start going over documents an alarm went off bringing a multitude of people to the gate room all of them looking at a panicked Radek.

"Radek what is the problem?" asked John

"They are moving." Radek replied

"What are moving Radek?" asked Elizabeth

"The Wraith Hives." Was the reply

Still not understanding why he was so upset they were in a better position than they had ever been they could take on a few Hives so he asked. "How many Radek five, ten, fifteen?"

"No. No. John the Hives are moving ALL of the hives are moving they have all awakened!" and now they all understood the reason for panic

"Exactly how many Hives are active Radek? We need a definite number, and do you know why they are awakening now?" Insisted John since they had never gotten an exact count

Peter and Rodney moved to assist Radek of finding the information that John had asked for. All three of them look up at the assembled crowd. "There are 136 Wraith Hives and close to 300 Cruisers. The reason that they awoke is because two of their hives were destroyed by what their data indicates are nuclear bombs, which means that the Genii are behind it."

Cursing the annoying fools that had forced them to begin the war against the Wraith sooner than they had wanted to, they had hoped to have six-ten fully operational warships before engaging the Wraith. At this point they had two and one undergoing repairs, they could easily protect themselves and a few planets from the Wraith, but there was no way for them to protect all the inhabited planets throughout Pegasus. So they began to plan and prepare for the coming war.

Athos had been the one to approach John with an interesting idea to get the Wraith and the Replicators to fight and decimate each other then they could go in and eliminate what remained. The plan that they came up with was to capture a Wraith vessel either a Hive or Cruiser and have it send out a signal to all the Wraith that it had found the new home world of the Ancients. They would also be impersonating the Genii so that no blame would come back to them and to get back at the Genii for waking the Wraith. It took a great deal of planning and work but they finally found a Wraith Cruiser and took control of it. Then they took it to the outer edges of the Replicators solar system and sent the signal to the Wraith indicating their discovery. The Lanteans had also planted a virus in the signal to the Wraith that would make all of the Replicators appear to have life signs the same as the Ancients. After the team finished they were beamed to the cloaked Orion, then the autopilot on the cruiser activated setting it on a collision course for the Replicator planet to help erase all evidence. Now all they had to do was sit and wait for the Hives to arrive so they could use their hyperspace disturbances to leave undetected.

After two weeks of waiting the crew was beginning to think their plan had failed when their scanners indicated incoming vessels. As soon as the Wraith began appearing the Orion left leaving behind a satellite to record and transmit the data from the battle to a remote planet where it would be recorded and relayed to The Tria in orbit so that there was no connection to the Lanteans. They were pleased to find 65 Hives and 130 Cruisers exiting hyperspace, they were surprised to discover that the Wraith did not even attempt to cull the Replicators. The ships just advanced on the planet and began firing, annihilating everything on the planet. After the initial volley by the Wraith the Replicators finally began retaliating using normal Drones and beam weapons. The battle lasted for 12 hours it had decimated the Wraith forces and left the planet in ruins, there was not a single Hive left intact and only three Cruisers had been able to escape. Leaving only 71 Hives and about 170 Cruisers currently functioning both the Wraith and the Replicators had been dealt a crippling blow.

After the excitement of the Wraith, Replicator battle the city was surrounded by Whales that live on the planet they discovered that the sun was currently very unstable which occurred every 15,000 years. They could expand the shield to cover the planet but it would heavily tax their reserves, something they did not wish to do with the Wraith now all awake. Rodney was the one to come up with the idea to capture and utilize the energy; they built three devices that would be attached to the ships. The ships would spread out and create a large umbrella type shield that would funnel the solar flare into a converter that would convert the flare into raw energy and store it into the Eight ZPMs that were currently depleted. However due to the sheer size of the flare they would need to use up the energy as soon as it was stored so the hooked two Asgard Beaming Devices up to each ZPM. The Asgard had advanced their beaming technology so far that they could create anything as long as they had the energy. Each device was set to create a substance four were set for reined Trinium and four for Naquadah, and the other eight were set to generate the rarest useful substances known to the Alterans.

When it was over each Beaming device had generated over 100 tons of their designated substance filling all of the warehouses under the SCF. The Trinium was spread to the four ships to reinforce their hulls and when combined with the Naquadah already present it actually tripled the energy storage capabilities of each ship and increased the strength of the walls by 25 times. They also now had enough materials to so that when Atlantis and Avalon were ready to reproduce again they could feed the new Leviathans and build them a new ship when they were ready.

** X**

Knowing that they could not wait any longer they finished the preparations to launch Eclipse, Orion, and Tria and take the fight to the Wraith. Aiden, Peter, and Teyla were placed in command of the Eclipse and Ronon took over Evan's position as head of city security and was coordinating all of the SG teams since Aiden was now on the Eclipse. The science and engineering department had been busy designing a new fighter that would be added as a complement to all the Lantean ships it was shaped like an X-Wing and three twice the size of a Jumper. It was equipped with two rail guns, two energy laser weapons, and one SBD in the event that they needed to destroy something large. They were equipped with both shields and a cloaking device so they could go on stealth missions. They each possessed a Naquadah/Trinium core that stored the craft's energy each ship was capable of holding a ZPM worth of energy, and when they docked with the ship their reserves would be replenished. They were also equipped with a small Naquadah generator for emergency power. Each warship carried 20 of these vessels and the city had built a bay that held thirty.

Over the next two months the Lanteans waged a full out assault and reduced the Wrath numbers to only 9 Hives and 23 Cruisers. It appeared that the Wraith were attempting to make one last strike against the Ancients because they were on a course for the Replicator home world. So the three warships ended their pursuit not wanting to draw the attention of the Replicators. In the end the Wraith inflicted little damage to the Replicators who were far better prepared for an attack this time destroying the last of the Wraith vessels within minutes of them exiting hyperspace. Once the Wraith were destroyed the Lanteans dialed the Replicators Stargate and fired their Anti Replicator Weapon through it eliminating the Replicators permanently.

Once the Anti Replicator Wave had covered the Whole planet the warships moved in and using their beaming technology rendered all of the structures and Replicator remains into their base materials for later use. A team was sent down to copy the Replicators entire knowledge repository and gather the ZPMs that they had been using all together they recovered 8 ZPMs, however all of them had been depleted long ago and now were used for raw energy. It took the ships two weeks to complete their task and they were able to recover a massive stock pile of raw materials for their future use.

** X**

After the short war with the Wraith the Lanteans returned to the city to rest though none of the Lanteans had been killed several had been injured when traveling to various planets in order to help them during the war. Many of the trios in the city had also chosen to make ZPMs since they were necessary and once the six they had were depleted they would have no more. Much to everyone's disappointment they found that a ZPM had to set idle for at least a thousand years before it could be utilized. They also found out how the Alterans had seeded life throughout the galaxy. ZPMs were produced and filled with life energy and after the first thousand years of setting idle began to naturally generate small amounts of life energy. So the Alterans would place several new ZPMs on planets capable of sustaining life and leave them for thousands of years. By doing this they would accelerate the natural process of evolution allowing races to grow much faster than they originally would have.

The John also went to speak with Chaya and asked her to get in touch with the Ascended council on the Lantean's behalf and ask for them to send a representative to the city. As soon as they returned there was there representative was there asking what they wished to speak about. Elizabeth stepped forward and told the Ascended Alteran that that they wished to clean up the Pegasus galaxy of all traces of Alteran technology so that it did not fall into the wrong hands and asked them if they would provide the Lanteans with the locations of all of their hidden labs and outposts. The Ascended Alteran had been hesitant, but saw the value of picking up all of the technology that was left lying around. After they were given the list of addresses he said that the council requested that they destroy all data, research, and technology at the addressed marked in red because they were things that should never have been built but in their desperation had made terrible mistakes. Elizabeth agreed that they would do their best to destroy what the council had requested and also asked if there was a way to contact them again if they needed to speak. The Ascended Alteran had given her a Stargate necklace and told her that if she dialed the correct address on the gate it would send out a signal to him telling him she needed to speak with him, and then showed her the address to dial.

The entire time the two had been talking waves of attraction were pouring off the Ascended Ancient and Athos. Just as he was about to leave John stepped forward and asked for a private word. John had told him that if he wished to descend and join them in the city he was welcome as long you follow the rules of the Leviathans. John found out his name was Maximus and he would consider John's offer.

The next few weeks the Lanteans were busy cleaning up the many labs throughout the galaxy the most disturbing one they found was a powerful weapon on the planet Doranda. The entire planet reeked of negative emotions and once they reached the Alteran lab and unsealed the doors bodies littered the hallways. They found that the lab was an experimental weapon that they Alterans were testing with an alternative form of energy. Since life energy was so powerful, but had become so hard for them to obtain and create they choose to go the opposite direction and attempt to power the weapon using Anti Life Energy or Negative Energy. They had discovered too late that it was almost impossible to control; the Negative Energy generator that they built drew the energy from another plane of existence to supply the weapon. This is part of what made them hopeful because they believed that they could simply switch planes if the source ever dried up, however when they turned it on they discovered that it was too chaotic and unpredictable to control. The most disturbing discovery though came when they tried to shut it off; the radiation from the Negative Energy was so toxic that it ripped through all of their containment protocols. Then it spread across the entire planet infecting everything it came into contact with, whatever it did not kill it turned in terrible creatures that tore each other apart until there was nothing left except death and destruction. The scientists had given their lives to shut down the generator and seal the lab.

They all walked back outside and John ordered the Orion to beam them up, once on board John turned to Rodney and told him to destroy the planet. Shocking all on the bridge except those who had been in the planet so Rodney used the weapons on the Orion to detonate the planet's core just as the Orion escaped into hyperspace to return to the city. Once back in the city several different people were angry with John for his decision to destroy and entire planet until he shared the entire experience with everyone by using the control chair to amplify his telepathy.

Interestingly it had only taken Maximus five days to descend and join the Lanteans it seemed that he and Athos hit it off immediately and were now just looking for an Omega. Other than the clean up the Lanteans were improving their relations with several different races and just relaxing now that they were no longer under the constant threat of the Wraith. So it was a shocker when the Stargate dialed in and a message came through form Earth from the newly created United Nations Stargate Council. The message was a call for help and some recorded footage from planets in the Milky Way what really shocked the Lanteans was that there were Wraith there culling different planets. The reason that they were contacting the Lanteans was that the Asgard had attempted to fight the Wraith and lost six of the seven vessels that they sent, the only one to survive was the Aurora and she had only done so because two other Asgard ships had moved to cover her escape.

The recording of the battle with the Asgard had also been sent and it worried the Lanteans because twelve of the Hives were half again larger than normal Hives and the thirteenth was easily double the size of a normal hive which was saying a lot. After a brief discussion with the senior staff they were all in agreement that they had to go and help the people in the Milky Way.

"Cameron take the Tria and go to the Alteran Weapons Platform use your tractor beams and hook on to then take it and go straight to Earth. Take three of the ZPMs with you to power it, it will need the power and station it in orbit above Earth. We will be right behind you as soon as the Orion and Eclipse are locked in with docking clamps and we recall the MDFs." Ordered John receiving a round of nods from everyone

John had another task to undertake though and he was unsure how to do it, he felt they would need all of the ZPMs that they could get to and they only had six three of which were now being installed in the Weapons Platform. So he took Ronon and Rodney into the chair room to discuss with Atlantis and Avalon. The plan that the five of them came up with was that John would take all of the ZPMs that they had created put them into sealed boxes that would contain all of the energy they would give off so no alterations would occur and was reinforced enough to protect the precious cargo then go back in time with them. Once there he would leave them on the main land. So the trio quickly gathered the ZPMs, put them into the boxes, loaded them into the jumper, and went back in time 5,000 years since they wanted to ensure that all of them would be ready. Once on the mainland they found a cave that had still existed in the future and left the boxes there and the traveled to their time. After they returned they removed all of the debris from the boxes loaded them back up and returned to the city.

Now a bit more secure about their emergency power situation the trio went to the control chairs to begin the long journey back to Earth, it only took them two days to arrive with the Alteran hyperdrive luckily the engines were all functioning properly. When they arrived they saw the Tria in orbit alongside the Weapons Platform and the Daedalus and another ship just like it not far away. Using their holograms the trio appeared on the Daedalus where they found General Hammond in command and on the other ship a Colonel Paul Emerson introduced himself as captain of the Odyssey.

"It is good to see you back in command general though I thought you had retired. Perhaps some introductions are in order for those who don't know us. I am Keeper John Sheppard of the Leviathan city ship, this is Rodney McKay Chief of Science for the city and my Beta mate, and this is Ronon Dex Head of city security, commander of the SG teams, and our Alpha"—A smiling John spoke as he introduced his mates

"I was until that bunch at the IOA went ape shit and screwed everything up. Due to the lack of confidence created by the IOA and with Jack rejoining SG 1 they pulled me out of retirement hoping that with my record and experience from the SGC it would help the public trust that they were doing everything they could to fix the problem."

"Are they general, are they doing anything to tear apart the IOA and find all of the corrupt officials or did they just find a few scapegoats to take the blame and bury the rest?"—John

"For the most part yes, but there are some who know too much or are too well connected to be prosecute. The other problem is that most of the evidence seemed to disappear before the investigators could get to it."—Hammond

"Well that is terribly unfortunate perhaps we can help. Rodney why don't you send the general what he is missing. General the data you are receiving is everything that we found on all of the corrupt and illegal dealings of the IOA and those connected to them. It is also only a copy so in the event that it disappears again we would be happy to replace it."—John replied with a feral smile

"Thank you it will help us immensely we have been going in circles trying to recover the information that they erased. I would like to say thank you for coming to help us I am sure that many among you harbor resentment for what the IOA did"—Hammond

"It does not matter what we feel for the people of Earth, it is our responsibility to eradicate the Wraith we don't know how they were able to reach the Milky Way but they are the last of their kind and we intend to finish them."—John

"You mean that you have destroyed all of the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy?"—Hammond

"As far as we know there are no more Wraith in Pegasus, but with these thirteen hives escaping there may be more out there that we don't know about."—John

"How? I thought that there were millions of them and a couple hundred of their ships."—Hammond asked shocked

"The Genii awakened them prematurely from their slumber and we were forced to wage war against them sooner than we anticipated, but we destroyed or caused the destruction of all 136 Wraith Hives and about 300 Wraith Cruisers that we were able to find. These thirteen must have separated from the rest of the Wraith before we arrived in the Pegasus galaxy or somehow cloaked their presence from the rest of their kind. Because we are using Wraith programs to track them and none of the thirteen hives in the Milky Way show up on those systems. We have never seen Hives the size of those twelve they are about half again the size of a normal Hive ship and the thirteenth that is easily double the size of a normal Hive and the shape and design is completely different."—John

"General, Colonel were your built to incorporate ZPMs as a supplemental power source?" after receiving a nod from both "Then here is a fully charged ZPM for each of your ships. Someone will also beam aboard to augment your shields and weapons to incorporate the increased power levels soon." Stated Rodney as a ZPM beamed on the bridge of each ship and floated to the nearest person.

"General I request permission to land the city on Earth so we will be able to conserve energy and if the various governments are willing some of our people would like to visit their families. We have put this off as long as possible due to the deceptions of the IOA many feared that anyone who knew we were actually alive would become a target and the IOA would kill them cover up the truth."—John

"Yes the UNSC stated that if you did answer our call you were welcome to land on the planet. If I may make a suggestion it would be best if you landed in international waters to prevent any governments or politicians from getting any foolish ideas."—Hammond

"Agreed and thank you for the suggestion it would not do to have anyone believing that we are siding with them simply because the city is setting close to them."—John

"Also it is fine with them if you wish to see your families they simply ask that you limit the weapons you carry, and John I have spoken a couple of times with your father since the Stargate was revealed he has been pushing very hard for information about you. He said that he really need to see and speak with you and it seems that your brother Adam was injured in combat and wishes to see you."—Hammond

Though John was tense and upset with having to see his father he really wanted to see his little twin brothers Adam and Evan. "Thank you for the information, allowing us to land, and see our families. Now what climate do the two of think we should choose I am thinking tropical what do you say?" After receiving two nods he nodded his own head and their holograms all blinked out.

From the moment that the Tria had exited hyperspace all of the images were being broadcast around the world in an effort by the UNSC to keep the people informed about what was happening beyond their little planet and to try to get the population used to the idea of Aliens. So the world watched the arrival of the city ship and the conversation that followed the information that had been shared about IOA had the investigators around the world delighted since they were having little luck in their own investigations. Now they were watching as the city advanced towards the planet and began its descent.

** X**

**OK I think that is a good place to stop. Enjoy**


	11. Chapter 11

**HAPPY NEW YEAR **

**Here is my gift to all of you.**

**Chapter 11**

** X**

Once the city landed Elizabeth, John, Ronon, and Rodney headed for the gate room to meet the UNSC that would be beaming into to discuss the current situation, and how they would allow the Lanteans to visit their families. The flash of light alerted them to the arrival of the delegation which strangely coincided with the Stargate dialing in. Not even taking time to address the delegation John turned to the technician at the computers.

"Activate the Iris we don't know who could be gating in, but it is most likely someone in this galaxy since no gates in Pegasus are able to establish or sustain intergalactic wormholes. The connection should also be going to the gate that is already on Earth, Rodney any ideas why we are receiving instead of the Earth gate?"—John

"It may be that the Alterans built this gate to be dominant to all other gates on a planet, but I would have to search the records to know for sure"—Rodney

"We are receiving a GDO signal but it is one that I don't recognize."—Technician

"Open the Iris and send the acceptance signal!"—John

Moments after the Iris opened the Wraith stunner blasts rained through the gate as the SG team ran through followed by several Wraith. Ronon and Teyla were the first to react moving forward to engage the Wraith followed by John and Aiden. Elizabeth went to the SG team to see if everyone had made it so they could close the Iris when she received an affirmative the Iris was closed in time for multiple impacts to echo throughout the room. Ronon and Teyla were had the six Wraith Drones that they fought unconscious and on the floor while John and Aiden were fighting the two Wraith officers. (The Wraith Drones were strong but stupid and the officers had a higher intelligence making them harder to fight.) John had just downed his opponent with a strike to the back of the neck when he saw Aiden go flying past, instinctively he turned to catch him but Rodney caught him first. Turning back he was not surprised to see Teyla attacking the remaining, her face a mask of fury at seeing her Omega hurt her attack was relentless and not stop until the Wraith was a bloody mess on the floor.

"Get the prisoners to the cells before they wake up, they have information that will be useful to us. Carson what is the status of the SG team?"—John

"The team is SG 5 and one of them was fed on, two others have superficial injuries and the Omega of the man who was fed on is an emotional mess."—Carson

"Get SG 5 to the infirmary, put the feeding victim into one of the healing pods hopefully it can restore him if not get a genetic sample and prepare to clone a body and transfer his conciseness into it. Take Aiden with you as well I want him to have a full medical scan to make sure that blow did not cause any damage. I also want you to be prepared to inoculate everyone at the SGC and the crews aboard their ships, we will offer the option when we sit down to speak with them and I am quite certain they will accept. Elizabeth contact the SGC and tell them of the current situation and inform them that if this is going to continue to happen we will need the GOD codes to all of their teams. Also offer them the use of our infirmary if they have any more victims of the Wraith."—John

As everyone moved to complete their assigned tasks the UNSC could only stare in shock as the Wraith that they were having so much trouble with were easily dispatched by the Lanteans. They were also shocked that not only was there an inoculation to the feeding process but the Lanteans were also able to reverse the damage, the most shocking thing however was that SG 5 and the prisoners were not were not carried or dragged out of the room they were levitated. When the room was cleared Rodney looked up from his tablet and spoke.

"The Alterans built this gate to be dominant to all other gates it is the base programming of all Stargates it would take a complete rewrite of the entire gate network to change it and I don't know how long it would take. I am also not sure I would want to change the programming the Alterans would have written the program for a reason and I would not want to alter it without knowing why." Nodding in assent John agreed that messing with the programming would be a very bad idea since they did not know what effects it would have.

"OK then we will keep it the way it is until we are able to find out why they wrote that program into the Stargates. We will need to discuss it, but I think that we could offer to house the SG teams and essential personnel while we are on Earth. They will be limited in what areas of the city they have access to and will not be given access to the database if there is something that they need someone can help them get it."—John

"I am not sure that I completely agree with you, but I see the necessity of the situation. Does that mean we are going to move the city to Cheyenne Mountain?"—Rodney

"No. I think that in this case moving the mountain to us would be the smarter choice. If we were to move the city to the SGC it would give the US an unfair advantage and could cause others to think we are choosing to allying with the US and ignoring other countries as the US has done for years when it comes to the Stargate." Spoke Elizabeth as she returned from contacting the SGC receiving several nods of agreement.

"How did your conversation go and who is in charge over there?"—Rodney

"I got all of the GOD codes so we will be able to tell friend from foe, and Richard Woolsey is still in command. It appears that he survived the dismantling of the IOA and with a bit of backing from General O'Neill was able to keep the position. Though I am confused as to why Jack would endorse him since they barely knew each other before Woolsey was assigned to the SGC."—Elizabeth

"Good we will need them, and perhaps Jack just found a kindred spirit in Woolsey and wanted to keep him around though more likely he just wanted to avoid having to do all the paperwork that comes with being in command." Replied a smirking John

"Yeah like I believe that you had nothing to do with that at all. Ha!"—Rodney

"We should probably deal with the UNSC delegation that arrived before SG 5 I am sure that they have better things to do than stand here and watch us all day."—Elizabeth

Turning to the delegation Elizabeth walked to them and took them to the conference room followed by John, Rodney, and Ronon. One inside everyone took their seats and they began discussing the various pressing issues. It took them a few hours to hash out the details now that they would be acting as the base of operations for all Stargate activity on Earth, but they finished and the delegation was beamed out. Now they had to go over the rules for the Lanteans to visit their families so they assembled everyone into the meeting hall.

"Alright people now due to the city's gate being dominant we will be housing the SG teams and the command staff. They will be limited to the tower that has been designated for their use and the common areas all other areas will be off limits to them, and they will not have access to the database since there is currently no need for it. If a time comes where they do require access then one of us will help them to find what they need, but they will never be given free access to the database or the city so if someone says otherwise they are lying."—John

"Now onto the issue of meeting families, we have secured permission for you all to do so. However the main problem is funding since all of us were technically dead our wills were carried out and our assets moved accordingly. If there was no will then the IOA seized the assets and pocketed them, since we will all need money an agreement has been made with the UNSC. They will be sending over credit cards and you will all be issued a card, at the end of every month we will settle the bill by trading with them. They were very interested in the refined Trinium we have, but it may be simpler to create some gold and pay them that way. As for actually visiting our families we are bound by the same laws as citizens of the country we are in, I would also prefer that everyone keep the use of their abilities to a minimum in public. All 32 Jumpers will be available for use, but there will be some safety measures put into place so that only a Lantean can operate them and not just anyone with the gene. Any questions?"—John

"Yes. What if we find one or both of our mates"—random Lantean

"If anyone finds one or both of their mates DO NOT bring them back to the city unless their life is in mortal danger without approval they will be allowed to come here, but we need to be careful of who we are bringing into the city. You will need to notify the city and then when they arrive they will have to go through a full medical scan for potential issues. After that they will be limited to their rooms and common areas of the city until we know them enough to trust them. Unless they consent to undergo the same process as the Satedan people before they were allowed to join us."—John

"OK the other issue is that the city cannot be without the senior staff and the Ship crews so we have set aside a tower for their use and they will be beamed in so we are able to meet with them without interrupting the operation of the city. Finally I want you all to do is to equip yourselves with the personal shields when leaving the city because whether we like it or not we are targets."—John

** X**

The next day John, Rodney, and Ronon were going to meet John's Family and Maximus and Athos were tagging along so they could see how the humans of Earth lived. They would be going to the hospital to see Adam since John did not know his current status. They left the city at dawn and arrived at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center where Adam was currently a resident. Their arrival was noticed by everyone since they were using spaceship, but thankfully the locals gave the group room though that may have been helped by Ronon's constant scowl. When they got into the hospital they were saved from having to ask for directions by John's older brother David who took them straight to Adam's room.

Once in the room everyone was introduced to John's brothers Evan, David, and his father Patrick, after John was able to see Adam for the first time and was distressed to see the condition of his baby brother laying there in the hospital bed hooked to a respirator, covered in bandages, and with machines beeping all around him. He instinctively moves forward to help his brother and was angered when Rodney stopped him. "What are you doing he is my baby brother." Snapped John

"I know and I know you wish to help him, but let us scan him first so we know the full extent of his injuries and can monitor them while we are healing him." Rodney replied attempting to calm John down. At the same time Ronon moved up behind John and pulled him into a comforting embrace when John finally calmed he nodded his head and Maximus moved forward and set a device at the foot of the bed. A light shot out of the device scanned Adam several times and then created a holographic projection of the damage.

The explosion Adam was injured in caused burning over 70% of his body, broken a number of bones, punctured a lung, caused severe head trauma, and damaged his spine badly enough that the doctors were not sure he would ever walk again. When the medical scanner finished and Maximus reviewed the results he spoke.

"John and Rodney you focus on his head while Athos and I focus on his spine they are the most critical areas at this point once they healed we will move in a descending order of severity healing his injuries as we go. Do not over exert yourselves and take your time he is stable and there is no reason to exhaust yourself simply to hasten the inevitable he will make a full recovery so take your time and stay calm."

Nodding in assent the four men moved into position to begin repairing the damage. John and Rodney focused on the swelling of the brain first then fractures to the skull and finished with the skin damage. Maximus and Athos had to realign the spine and repair the severed and torn muscle tissue then they moved on to the punctured lung. After a short break the four finished with the broken bones and the extensive burns once finished the medical scanner showed that Adam' body was in pristine condition, but it would take a few hours for him to wake up as his mind was processing that he was no longer injured and the pain had stopped. The healing had left them all a bit tired but nothing that a nights rest would not fix it was proof that all of their abilities were growing in strength.

While they were healing Adam one of his doctors had come in and attempted to stop them but was intercepted by Ronon. He explained that they were healing Adam and meant him no harm. John's brothers and father were amazed at what was occurring, they could actually see the injuries healing right in front of their eyes. The entire process took just over an hour and left the four ready for a good meal. Hoping to reconnect with his younger brother David suggested that the eight of them go to the restaurant across from the hospital so that they could get to know each other better over a hearty meal.

During the meal John did not speak to his father they had not spoken since John left home and joined the military. Patrick had always made John feel like a failure and a disappointment no matter how good he did Patrick always asked why he did not do better. If John got an A Patrick asked why he didn't get an A+, if John got an A+ then Patrick asked why all of his grades were not A+s. Eventually John had just accepted that to Patrick he would never be good enough and stopped attempting to please him so John decided to do something that he wanted to do the next day he joined the Air Force. When Patrick found out he gave John an ultimatum break his contract and go to college or he would be disowned from the family, John had looked his father in the eye said "Fuck You, and the Sheppard Family" then walked out the door and never looked back. The hardest part was that his brothers had stood behind Patrick, to John it had been the final betrayal and John had not contacted them or accepted any of their attempts to contact him since that day.

The only reason that John had come was to see his little brothers, they were young when John left and over the years his love for them had won out over his sense of betrayal. John was happier now that he was able to find out what his brothers had been doing over the years and considering Patrick's reaction to John's choice to join the military John was shocked to see that Adam was a SEAL. Evan had graduated from college with degree in engineering and was working for Patrick and David was being groomed to take over the company when Patrick retired. Adam and Evan were both still single but David was married to a woman and had been for a few years now. It was unfortunate that David was still ignoring his instincts to find a third but he was still too interested in pleasing Patrick. They spent two hours enjoying the meal before returning to the hospital and in all of this time Patrick had still not said what he wished to speak with John about.

When they got there Adam had been moved now that he was out of critical condition and was now sharing a room with the others from his unit recovering from their injuries. Maximus checked Adam once more and told John that everything was fine and he should be waking up anytime, and Adam sis wake up thirty minutes. As Adam was coming around Maximus continued scanning him for any anomalies and was happy to see that there were none. At first John had been hesitant about his brother partnering with Maximus and Athos, but the more he thought about it the more he realized that he missed his little brothers and would do anything to have them around every day.

As Adam was coming out of his coma he started looking around the room and the moment he laid eye on Maximus and Athos John could feel the attraction coming from all three of them. Deciding that he would do his brotherly duty and harass the three later he moved into Adams line of sight to draw his attention.

"It is good to see you little brother it seems that you had a bit of trouble" spoke a smiling John

The moment John had finished speaking Adam shot out of bed like a bullet and threw himself at his brother hugging him with all his strength. A few minutes later he had released John and pulled him over to the bed asking him questions at a mile a minute about where he had been what he was doing, and why it took him so long to come and see him. John just smiled and introduced Rodney and Ronon to Adam getting a toothy grin in return then Maximus and Athos stepped forward and before John could introduce them Adam was on his feet enthusiastically introducing himself.

"Adam I spoke to your commanding officer and he said you will be on medical leave for another week after which your current contract is up for renewal. We need to return to the city to meet up with Rodney's family since they will be beamed into their rooms tomorrow morning. All of you are welcome to join us since in the current climate it would be foolish for us to leave the city for too long. So the essential personnel are having their families brought to the city so to catch up with them there"—John

All of the Sheppards decided to return to the city with the Lanteans, once there they were escorted to their rooms for a good night's rest. The next morning the Millers were beamed in and the meeting with Jeanie Miller and her family was a lot easier though Rodney was upset that Jeanie had given up pursuing her education to be a stay at home mom. According to Rodney she was one of the few people on Earth close to his own intelligence. It was also amusing because she would only call him Meredith and refused to ever say the name Rodney. The rest of the visit was cut short when John received a call from the gate room that they were needed because the UNSC had beamed in and were requesting that the prisoners be questioned. Something that John could not really argue with, but they just had not gotten to yet so the trio left the Millers in the cafeteria and went to meet the delegates.

** X**

After joining the USNC members John needed to address that they would be questioning the Wraith, and he knew that they would have issues with how the information was retrieved, but they were in no position to dictate methods especially since they knew nothing about the Wraith.

"Gentlemen let me be clear about one thing these beings are not what you are used to dealing with and the methods that will be employed to acquire the information will in no way be humane. On that note I want you to understand that this ship is completely outside of your jurisdiction and interference in our questioning is not welcome. Are there any questions?"—John

The leader of the delegation was the one to speak he was an Englishman by the name of Rupert. "We are aware that we have no authority here and appreciate your efforts to help us where you are able to. As part of the new policy to keep the people informed of what is going on in the galaxy we would like permission to film and broadcast some of the events occurring around the gate. We would also like to show the world what they Wraith look and act like on live television so they better understand the threats that we are facing. The main reason for the broadcast is that there are a number of pacifists that are causing issues because they are claiming that you should have negotiated with the Wraith and are comparing you to Hitler since you are committing genocide."

"I have no problems with you broadcasting these events, but you need to pay attention to what is being filmed so that no secrets get out that could compromise either of our abilities to combat the Wraith or the secrets of the SG teams. There will be areas of the city that are clearly marked as off limits if anyone is found there they will searched and removed from the city. Now if you will all follow me you can meet the Wraith."—John

Rupert spoke again "There is another issue that has drawn the attention of many, and that is the miraculous recovery of your brother, and wish to know if these results could be replicated for others that are injured as severely?"

Knowing that healing his brother would cause issues John sighed "I am sorry but even though we threw out most of the laws of the Alterans there are some that we agreed with. The only reason that we were legally able heal Adam is because the two Lanteans that were with us are both feeling the pull and saw him as a potential mate. I realize that is not the answer you wanted to hear, but we agreed that advancing any civilization too fast would only cause them to self-destruct. However there are some stipulations in place that allow us to aid struggling civilizations if they are facing destruction as we did with the Asgard."

"What I don't understand though is if you wish to help your people why is it that the majority of the technology the SGC has acquired over the years is not being utilized? I know for a fact that they have recovered a number of technologies that would greatly aid the people of Earth such as the Goa'uld healing devices and cleaner energy sources even those two things would change the lives of everyone on Earth."—John

"Honestly we don't really know all of the technology that the SGC has acquired over the years and from what you have told us it seems that the US is holding out on all of us." Replied the outraged Englishman though by the faces of all the members of the delegation the anger was shared by all.

"Well I can say for certain that with the technology the SGC has acquired over the years of its operation they have ability to build both Nuclear Fusion and Cold Fusion energy generators now, and should at the very least be building the facilities to do so. Both methods are very clean and would eliminate your dependence on fossil fuels to generate electricity completely. For the healing devices they would be harder to reverse engineer since humans don't have Naquadah in their blood, but an alternative power source could easily be equipped to replace that. For transportation Cold Fusion generators could be built and installed into electric cars, from what I know there is no reason that the Earth can't be completely free of their dependence on Fossil Fuels in the next ten years."—Rodney

Rodney's explanation caused a round of absolute shock to settle on the faces of not only the delegates but also the camera crew. Rupert spoke up "Could you help us with any of this since it is obvious that the USA has no intention sharing any of this technology with the rest of the people of Earth?"

Looking at each other the silence stretches out for several minutes before the trio all nod and with a grin Rodney speaks "Due to our laws we can't give you anything. However should a group of scientists have access to the technology that the SGC has acquired over the years we would be willing to allow them to occupy some of the empty labs here in the city and since the development of the technology that we have been discussing can be very destructive if not properly monitored some of our scientist could be persuaded to monitor said development to prevent your scientists from going in a dangerous direction."

Rodney's statement caused the delegates to stare for several minutes and it was quite amusing as the trio watched as realization dawned on all of their faces. Rupert was the first to recover and realizing that the Lanteans were walking a fine line and offering far more than ever hoped replied. "I am sure that we could find scientists who would jump at the opportunity to study here with the Lanteans to prevent any disasters from occurring."

Nodding John spoke "Now that, that is dealt with I believe it is time to have a conversation with our prisoners if you would follow us please we will see what they have to say." The trio led the group down to where the prisoners were being held to begin their interrogations one in the room the guests were directed to the side of the room and protected by a shield.

"For those of you intelligent to understand English we are here for information and I know that in the past the Alterans have attempted to get information out of their prisoners to little effect. I however have a very different approach than they did and I am quite certain that you will more willing to share than you predecessors. Now to all of you who are new to these accommodations our friend in the center cell here is Steve he was found in the wreckage of a damaged Cruiser and had been stranded on the planet for the last 10,000 years. In order for him to survive that long he was forced to feed on all of the others who survived the ship's landing, and when I say all others that means he fed on other Wraith as well." Before John would continue the two Officer Wraith interrupted.

"What is your point Ancient we have no interest in your little history tale. Let us out of here and we will find something far more interesting to do life drain the life from your body."—Wraith Officer 1

"Yes. Yes. That is all very nice I think that from now on I shall call you Bob you seem like a Bob to me, and the reason it is important for you to understand the history around Steve is that we are unwilling to let ourselves be fed upon so he is a bit hungry. So you see we have our fried Steve here who is so very hungry and now we have eight strong Wraith to feed him with." Spoke John with a malicious smirk.

"You would not dare you are too bound by your ethics and humanity."Snarled Wraith officer 2 the one that Teyla beat up

Without responding the Trio turned to the nearest cell holding one of the Wraith John waved his hand and the cell door opened. The moment that the door was opened the Wrath Drone lunged at the trio, just before he got there however Rodney and Ronon had him levitating in the air. As one the trio turned directing the Wraith Drone towards Steve's cell when he was in front of the door John opened it as Ronon and Rodney threw the Wraith Drone in. Once inside the cell the Wraith Drone did not even have time to stand before Steve was feeding on him draining every last ounce of life he could get. The reactions around the room were pretty much all the same all of the faces held shock, but John did not address any but the Wraith Officer 2.

"I believe that we have demonstrated exactly what we are willing to do to get the information, and from now on I think we will call you Clayton. So who is willing to give us the information we desire?" Questioned John

When no one spoke John raised his arm and a second cell opened allowing another Wraith Drone out repeating the process of feeding Steve. Then John turned to Bob and Clayton "There are only four more left once they are gone you will be next, and the more we feed to Steve the less food there will be for you. So are either of you willing to speak?"

Just as the trio was about to feed the third Wraith Drone when Bob yelled out "Wait I will talk." After depositing the Wraith Drone back into his cell they turned to Bob and waited. "When the Ancients fled 10,000 years ago the High Queen discovered some secret of their technology, and secreted it away hiding it from all of the other queens except her daughters. Her daughters are the queens of the 12 Hives following the High Queen's ship; the secret that was found was one of the power crystals that the Ancients used to power their technology. After several decades of research we were able to find 14 more crystals and bring them back to the Queens, the High Queen kept three of the crystals and gave one to each of her daughters before being forced into hibernation due to lack of food. To the shock of all we slumbered for 10,000 years and when we awakened all 13 Hives had grown and evolved. We found that the change was due to the energy being emitted by the crystal, the energy they emit is life energy and since our ships are organic they grew and evolved far beyond any before them it is also what allowed us to hibernate for so long. Once we woke the queens knew that the others would demand that we share our new power with them so they met and it was decided that we would seek out a new galaxy away from the others. The High Queen left first and a few months later she sent some signal that we were to follow, when we arrived at the coordinates her Hive had changed again and was now larger and stronger. The High Queen also found some new hyperdrive technology that allowed us to traverse the gap between galaxies and she chose to come to this galaxy."

Nodding in acceptance of the information the trio exited the room with the delegation right on their heels headed for the conference room to discuss the information they had just received. Upon arrival the delegation took their seats and waited for the Lanteans to speak the trio had pensive looks on their faces. John spoke first but it was more to his mates than to the occupants of the room and the television audience.

"If the humans are going to be of any value in the fight against the Wraith's new ships we have to make some alterations to their ships, there is no way that they will be able to match a Hive one on one as they are. We can provide them with two more ZPMs to power each ship for the duration of this conflict that way they are functioning on a complete trio, but the ZPMs will have to be returned once the conflict is over. We can run both ships through the SCF the alterations would only take a day at most so their systems are capable of handling the additional power. The Asgard will also need to be contacted regarding this development so they can avoid another disaster; their ships were capable of easily combating a single Hive the fact that they were so easily defeated means that these Hives are far more powerful than any we have faced"

"Agreed I am quite concerned about this thirteenth Hive not only because it carries 3 ZPMs, but also due to the rapid and extensive transform it went through and the new hyperdrive capabilities that the Wraith have acquired. It is too much of a coincidence for the new ship and hyperdrive to not be connected, so the question is where did they come from? Also after reviewing all of the footage of the Asgard's battle with them we know that the ships now have a much thicker hull and more powerful weapons. Meaning that we will need to plan the best ways to combat them; as for altering Earth's vessels I recommend that only the shields and weapons systems be altered, and then the ZPMs are only utilized when necessary.—Rodney

"We also have to consider that we are currently in a similar position to the Alterans when they lost the war with the Wraith we are outnumbered we only have three war ships, four if you include the Aurora. Our shields are capable of holding out under constant bombardment for several weeks maybe even months the main problem is that we don't know how effective our current weapons will be against their new defenses. As for The Daedalus and the Odyssey combined they might be able to fight one Hive ship, but that still leaves us with more than two on one odds and not in our favor and we still have no idea what the 13th Hive is capable of. We will need as many advantages as we can get I suggest that the three of us spend some time in the chairs perhaps we will find what we are looking for there."—Ronon

The other two nodded in agreement as they thought over what the other two had said then as if remembering that the delegates were still there the trio turned to them. "We need some time to review this new information and plan what can be done to combat the Wraith Hives and there new capabilities. We have very little knowledge about what they are truly capable of and we don't know if they are even using the ZPMs as power sources at this point, if they are not it would make them an even greater threat than they already are. You are welcome to stay here in the guest tower or you can beam out and when we are done we will contact you."—John

"I would very much like to spend some time in the city, but I believe that we should all return home so that we deal with the issues brought to our attention about the SCG and begin compiling a list of scientists that would be beneficial to the program that you have offered us."—Rupert.

With that the group said their goodbyes and as the delegates were beamed away the trio headed for the Control Chairs to look through the Alteran database.

** X**

**Sorry for the delay the holidays and my changing this chapter several times caused it to take so long. Hope you enjoy**


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